Liquid crystal device and electronic apparatus

ABSTRACT

A liquid crystal device comprising a pair of substrates  3   a  and  3   b  which are bonded together by a sealing material  2,  and a plurality of electrodes  9   a  and  9   b  which are formed on the inside surfaces of these substrates. The electrodes  9   a  have wiring lines  17   a  and  17   b  which pass through the sealing material  2  and extend to a substrate projecting part  4   a , and dummy patterns  19   a  which 1pass through the sealing material  2  at the side opposite to the wiring lines  17   a  and  17   b ; dummy patterns  19   a  are formed with a width which is smaller than the width of the electrodes  9   a  inside the region surrounded by the sealing material  2;  preferably, they are formed with the same width as the wiring lines  17   a.

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present invention relates to a liquid crystal device whichforms text images and so on by using liquid crystal to modulate lightand to an electronic apparatus which is formed using the liquid crystaldevice.

BACKGROUND ART

[0002] Recently, liquid crystal devices have been widely used in displayunits of electronic apparatuses such as portable computers, mobiletelephones, video cameras, and so on. In general, these liquid crystaldevices are formed such that a pair of substrates, each havingelectrodes formed thereon are bonded by a ring of sealing material suchthat the electrodes are oriented parallel to each other, and the liquidcrystal is encapsulated in the region enclosed by the pair of substratesand the sealing material. In these liquid crystal devices, images suchas text, numerals, graphics, and so on are displayed by controlling theorientation of the liquid crystal encapsulated between the pair ofsubstrates at each pixel.

[0003] Among these liquid crystal devices, there are simple matrixliquid crystal devices which do not use active elements and activematrix liquid crystal devices which use active elements. TFD (Thin FilmDiode) elements, which are two-terminal active devices, and TFT (ThinFilm Transistor) elements, which are three-terminal active devices, areknown as such active elements.

[0004] Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 15, for example, simple matrixliquid crystal devices which are formed such that a pair of substrates151 a and 151 b made of glass or the like are bonded by a ring ofsealing material 152 made of an epoxy resin or the like are known. Thefirst one of the substrates, substrate 15 1 a, has a substrateprojecting part 153 a which projects further outside than the othersubstrate 15 1 b, and the other substrate 151 b has a substrateprojecting part 153 b which projects further outside than the firstsubstrate 151 a.

[0005] A plurality of strip-shaped electrodes 154 a are formed of, forexample, ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) on the inside surface of the firstsubstrate 15 1 a, and a plurality of strip-shaped electrodes 154 b areformed of, for example, ITO on the inside surface of the other substrate151 b. When the pair of substrates 151 a and 151 b are bonded, theseelectrodes 154 a and 154 b orthogonally intersect each other, and eachintersection point forms one pixel.

[0006] The electrodes 154 a formed on the first substrate 15 1 a havewiring lines 156 a which extend onto the substrate projecting part 153 aby passing through the sealing material 152, and, at the same time, alsohave dummy patterns 157 a which pass through the sealing material 152 atthe side opposite to the substrate projecting part 153 a. Electrodes 154b are also formed on the other substrate 15 1 b in the same way. Liquidcrystal driving ICs (Integrated Circuits; not shown in the drawing) aremounted on the substrate projecting parts 153 a and 153 b, and thewiring lines 156 a of the electrodes 154 a and the wiring lines 156 b ofthe electrodes 154 b are connected to the terminals of these liquidcrystal driving ICs.

[0007] Liquid crystal is encapsulated in the region enclosed by thesubstrate 151 a, the substrate 15 1 b, and the sealing material 152.This region is called a liquid crystal encapsulating region R. Bycontrolling the voltage applied to this liquid crystal at each pixel,defined by the intersection points of the electrodes 154 a and theelectrodes 154 b, light which is incident from outside the substrate 151a or the substrate 151 b and transmitted therethrough is modulated ateach pixel, and, accordingly, an image such as text is displayed on theouter side of the substrate 151 a or the substrate 151 b.

[0008] In the conventional liquid crystal device, if a structure inwhich the wiring lines 156 a pass underneath the sealing material 152 atthe substrate projecting part 153 a side while, on the other hand, theelectrodes 154 a do not pass underneath the sealing material 152 at theside opposite the substrate projecting part 153 a is used, since thecell thickness at the end of the liquid crystal panel at the sideopposite the substrate projecting part 153 a becomes smaller by anamount equal to the part having no electrodes 154 a, the cell thicknessbetween the substrate projecting part 153 a side and the side oppositethereto becomes nonuniform. When such a nonuniformity in the cellthickness occurs, the threshold voltage Vth at which the liquid crystalis turned ON/OFF becomes nonuniform between the substrate projectingpart 153 a side and the side opposite thereto, and, for that reason, aproblem occurs in that the display quality of the liquid crystal deviceis reduced.

[0009] In the conventional liquid crystal device, the reason why thedummy patterns 157 a, which pass underneath the sealing material 152 atpart of the electrodes 154 positioned at the side opposite to thesubstrate projecting part 153 a, are formed is that they prevent theheight of the liquid crystal encapsulating region R, that is to say, thecell gap height, or in other words, the cell thickness, between thesubstrate projecting part 153 a side and the side opposite thereto frombecoming nonuniform.

[0010] However, in the conventional liquid crystal device in which thedummy patterns 157 a are provided as described above, the configurationis such that the dummy patterns 157 a are formed by extending theelectrodes 154 a while maintaining their width, and that is why thewidth of the dummy patterns 157 a is the same as the width of theelectrodes 154 a. Accordingly, the ratio of the area underneath thesealing material 152 occupied by the wiring lines 156 a, which passthrough the sealing material 152 at the substrate projecting part 153 aside, is different from the ratio of the area underneath the sealingmaterial 152 occupied by the dummy patterns 157 a, which pass throughthe sealing material 152 at the side opposite the substrate projectingpart 153 a. In particular, the ratio of the area occupied by the dummypatterns 157 a at the side opposite the substrate projecting part 153 ais larger.

[0011] Generally, in order to maintain the cell thickness at the sealingmaterial, spherical or cylindrical spacers 158 are dispersed therein.However, when the ratio of the area occupied by the wiring lines 156 aand the ratio of the area occupied by the dummy patterns 157 a differfrom each other, the number of spacers 158 sitting on top of the wiringlines 156 a is not the same as the number of spacers 158 sitting on topof the dummy patterns 157 a. In particular, the number at the substrateprojecting part 153 a side, where the area occupation ratio is small, issmaller than the number at the dummy pattern 157 a side, where the areaoccupation ratio is large.

[0012] There is a tendency for the spacers 158 in the sealing material152 to be compressed and crushed by the pair of substrates 151 a and 151b; however, compared to the large number of spacers sitting on the dummypattern 157 a, where the area occupation ratio is large, the smallnumber of spacers 158 sitting on the wiring lines 156 a, where the areaoccupation ratio is small, are crushed to a greater extent. Accordingly,when the extent to which the spacers 158 are crushed at the two sides ofthe liquid crystal panel is different, a nonuniformity in the cellthickness occurs between one side of the liquid crystal panel and theother side, even when the dummy patterns 157 a are formed. As a result,there is a problem in that the display quality deteriorates due tononuniformity in the threshold voltage Vth.

[0013] Among liquid crystal devices, those having a structure in whichliquid crystal driving ICs are directly mounted on the substrateprojecting parts by the so-called COG (Chip On Glass) method are known.In these COG-method liquid crystal devices, since the plurality ofelectrodes which form the liquid crystal display region must be made toconverge towards the terminals of the liquid crystal driving ICs on thesubstrate projecting parts, the wiring lines 156 a of the electrodes 154a shown in FIG. 15 must be formed more finely, that is to say, with anarrower pattern width.

[0014] As a result, when the pattern width at one side becomes narrower,the extent to which the above-described spacers 158 are crushed becomeseven more pronounced. Moreover, since the electrical resistancecorrespondingly increases when the pattern width becomes narrower, inorder to prevent this, it is necessary to reduce the electricalresistance by increasing the pattern height, that is to say, byincreasing the film thickness of the electrode. Increasing the filmthickness of the electrode in this way causes the cell thicknessnonuniformity due to the different level of crushing of the spacers 158in the sealing material to become more pronounced.

[0015] In addition, in recent years there has been an increasing demandfor liquid crystal devices capable of high-definition display and colordisplay. In order to achieve these types of displays, the electrodes 154a and 154 b shown in FIG. 15 must be made even more finely and thenumber of these electrodes must be increased. Such a decrease in theelectrode width means that the film thickness must be increased, asdescribed above, and as a result, the difference in the level ofcrushing of the spacers 158 in the sealing material induces a large cellthickness nonuniformity.

[0016] Moreover, a conventional liquid crystal device which uses asimple-matrix-type liquid crystal panel 110 shown in FIG. 16 is known.In this liquid crystal panel 110, a first substrate 111 a and a secondsubstrate 111 b, which are made from glass, plastic, or the like, arebonded by a sealing material 113. Here, the structure is such thatspherical or cylindrical spacers which have a diameter on the order of 5to 10 μm and which are made from, for example, resin are mixed in thesealing material 113 and the spacing between the substrates iscontrolled by the spacers when the first substrate 111 a and the secondsubstrate 111 b are joined together during substrate bonding, thusallowing the spacing between the substrates to be precisely set to afixed value.

[0017] In the liquid crystal panel 110, a plurality of strip-shapedfirst electrodes 112 a are arranged in parallel to each other to extendin a predetermined direction on the surface of the first substrate 111a, that is to say, in the form of stripes. Also, on the surface of thesecond substrate 111 b, a plurality strip-shaped second electrodes 112 bare arranged in parallel to each other to extend in the directionorthogonal to the first electrodes 112 a, that is to say, in the form ofstripes. Then, a driving region Z is formed by horizontally andvertically arraying the regions where the first electrodes 112 a and thesecond electrodes 112 b, which are formed on the surfaces of thesubstrates 111 a and 111 b, respectively, intersect each other, that isto say, pixel regions, in the shape of a matrix.

[0018] The first substrate 111 a has a substrate projecting part 114 awhich projects further towards the outside than the second substrate 111b. Also, the second substrate 111 b has a substrate projecting part 114b which projects further towards the outside than the first substrate1111 a. First wiring lines 116 a which are electrically connected to thefirst electrodes 112 a pass through the region where the sealingmaterial 113 is formed and are led out onto the substrate projectingpart 114 a. Also, second wiring lines 116 b which are electricallyconnected to the second electrodes 112 b pass through the region wherethe sealing material 113 is formed and are led out onto the substrateprojecting part 114 b.

[0019] Input terminals 117 a and 117 b are formed at the outer edges ofthe substrate projecting parts 114 a and 114 b, respectively. Inaddition, IC chips 118 a and 118 b, which are formed of semiconductorICs, are mounted at the ends of the first wiring lines 112 a and secondwiring lines 112 b and at the ends of the input terminals 117 a and 117b.

[0020] At the opposite side from the first wiring lines 116 a, the firstelectrodes 112 a have extended dummy patterns 119 a which extend outsidethe driving region Z. Also, at the opposite side from the second wiringlines 116 b, the second electrodes 112 b have extended dummy patterns119 b which extend outside the driving region Z. The extended dummypatterns 1 19 a are connected to the first electrodes 112 a, and theextended dummy patterns 119 b are connected to the second electrodes 112b.

[0021] The extended dummy patterns 119 a are formed such that they passthrough a part 113 a of the sealing material 113, and the extended dummypatterns 119 b are formed such that they pass through a part 113 b ofthe sealing material 113. The reason for forming such a structure is asfollows. The first wiring lines 116 a pass through a part 113 c providedtowards the substrate projecting part 114 a side of the sealing material113. In addition, the second wiring lines 116 b pass through a part 113d provided towards the substrate projecting part 114 b side of thesealing material 113. In this state, if the extended dummy patterns 119a do not pass through the part 113 a provided at the side of the sealingmaterial 113 opposite to the substrate projecting part 114 a, andfurthermore if the extended dummy patterns 119 b do not pass through thepart 113 b provided at the side of the sealing material 113 opposite tothe substrate projecting part 114 b, the spacing between the substratesat the positions of the parts 113 c and 113 d will be larger than thatat the parts 113 a and 113 b by an amount equal to the thickness of thefirst wiring lines 116 a and second wiring lines 116 b, respectively.The reason why the extended dummy patterns 11 9 a and extended dummypatterns 119 b are formed such that they pass through the part 113 a andthe part 113 b of the sealing material 113, respectively, is to preventsuch a nonuniformity in the substrate spacing.

[0022] Therefore, by providing a structure such that the extended dummypatterns 119 a and 119 b pass through the parts 113 a and 113 b,respectively, of the sealing material 113 in the manner described above,the nonuniformity in the substrate spacing in the driving region due toeach of the parts 113 a, 113 b, 113 c, and 113 d of the sealing material113 can be reduced. Such a nonuniformity in the substrate spacing causesdisplay nonuniformity due to differences in the liquid crystal thresholdvoltage. The deterioration in display quality is particularly pronouncedin STN (Super Twisted Nematic) type liquid crystal display devices whichare sensitive to changes in the substrate spacing.

[0023] However, for the reasons given below, it is difficult to reducethe difference between the substrate spacing at the parts 113 d and 113c of the sealing material 113 and the substrate spacing at the parts 113b and 113 a of the sealing material 113 to a degree which makes itpossible to provide sufficiently high image quality in the liquidcrystal device.

[0024] For example, as shown in FIG. 17, in order to form a row ofterminals for the IC chip 118 b (see FIG. 16), the width of the secondwiring lines 116 b is set to be narrower than the width of the secondelectrodes 112 b. In addition, the array spacing of the second wiringlines 116 b, that is to say, the spacing at which they are formed, or inother words, the pitch, is also set to be narrower than the arrayspacing of the second electrodes 112 b. Accordingly, the extended dummypatterns 119 b are formed with a width and an array spacing which aresubstantially the same as the second electrodes 112 b. Because of this,the area occupation ratio of the second wiring lines 116 b with respectto the part 113 d of the sealing material 113 (in other words, the ratioof area occupied by the portions of the second wiring lines 116 b whichpass through the sealing material with respect to the area of the part113 d) is smaller than the area occupation ratio of the extended dummypatterns 119 b with respect to the part 113 b of the sealing material113 (in other words, the ratio of area occupied by the portion of theextended dummy patterns 119 b which pass through the sealing materialwith respect to the area of the part 113 b).

[0025] For that reason, the number of spacers sitting on the secondwiring lines 116 b at the part 113 d is less than the number of spacerssitting on the extended dummy patterns 119 b at the part 113 b, and, asa result, the bonding pressure applied during substrate bonding is borneby the part 113 d. When this happens, a difference in substrate spacingbetween the part 113 d and at the part 113 b remains due to thedifference in the degree of crushing of the spacers. The situation isexactly the same for the first electrodes 112 a in FIG. 16.

[0026] Recently, there have been many demands for liquid crystal deviceshaving high-definition display and color display capabilities. Inrealizing these types of display, it is necessary to increase the numberof first electrodes 112 a and second electrodes 112 b by making theirwidth smaller, and in this case the width of the electrodes becomessmaller. Since the electrical resistance increases as a result ofreducing the electrode width in this way, it is necessary to form thefirst electrodes 112 a and the second electrodes 112 b with a largerthickness in order to prevent such an increase in electrical resistance.in this case, the first wiring lines 116 a and the extended dummypatterns 119 a, which are formed at the same time as the firstelectrodes 112 a, as well as the second wiring lines 116 b and theextended dummy patterns 119 b, which are formed at the same time as thesecond electrodes 112 b, also become thicker. Therefore, since thedifference in the controlled force applied to the spacers with respectto the substrate spacing both in the case where the spacers sit on thewiring lines and the dummy patterns and in the case where they do not,increases, the difference in the amount of crushing of the spacersbecomes larger, and, as a result, the nonuniformity in substrate spacingalso becomes larger.

[0027] Furthermore, in liquid crystal devices having high-definitiondisplay and color display capabilities, the number of connectionterminals of the IC chips increases corresponding to increases in thenumber of pixels and the number of electrodes, and, likewise, there isalso a tendency for the spacing between terminals, that is to say, theterminal pitch, to be reduced. Therefore, the ratio of the width andarray spacing, that is to say, the pitch, between the first electrodes112 a and the first wiring lines 116 a in the driving region Z, as wellas the ratio of the width and the pitch between the second electrodes112 b and the second wiring lines 116 b also have a tendency toincrease. As a result, the nonuniformity in substrate spacing alsoincreases.

[0028] In Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 4-087822,there is disclosed a technology wherein, in a liquid crystal displaypanel which has a pair of glass substrates bonded by a sealing material,when the electrode width is changed at the location of the sealingportion, indentations and projections are prevented from occurring onthe substrate surface corresponding to the sealing portion by formingdummy electrode patterns at the sealing portion. However, the dummyelectrode patterns disclosed in that document are provided at thelocation of the sealing portion, and, as a result, it is difficult tomake the cell gap uniform over a wide area of the liquid crystal panel.

[0029] In Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 5-203966, there isdisclosed a technology wherein, in a color liquid crystal electroopticaldevice which is formed by bonding a color filter substrate and atransparent substrate via a sealing portion, by providing separatetransparent electrode patterns as driving electrode patterns at thesealing portion, the cell gap is made more uniform than in the case inwhich portions where there are transparent electrodes and portions wherethere are no transparent electrodes both exist at the position where thesealing portion is provided. However, with the technology disclosed inthat document, the electrode patterns for ensuring uniformity of thecell gap are provided linearly along the sealing material rather thanbeing provided connected to the driving electrode patterns which passthrough the sealing portion. As a result, it is difficult to make thecell gap uniform over a wide area of the liquid crystal panel.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0030] The present invention is made in consideration of the problemsmentioned above and its objective is to reduce the nonuniformity insubstrate spacing, in other words, to reduce the cell thicknessnonuniformity of a liquid crystal panel, by means of patterns ofelectrodes which are formed on the surfaces of the substrates which makeup the liquid crystal device, thereby improving the liquid crystaldisplay quality. In particular, the objective of the present inventionis to make the cell thickness uniform over a wide region of the liquidcrystal panel.

[0031] (1) In order to accomplish the above objective, a liquid crystaldevice according to the present invention comprises a pair of substrateswhich are bonded by a sealing material and a driving region which isformed inside the sealing material, and comprises a liquid crystal layerwhich is disposed between the pair of substrates and is surrounded bythe sealing material; spacers which are dispersed in the sealingmaterial; and electrodes, provided on the liquid crystal layer side ofone of the substrates, including portions forming the driving region,wiring lines which overlap the sealing material at one side of thedriving region while supplying a potential to the portions forming thedriving region, and dummy patterns which overlap the sealing material atthe other side of the driving region while being connected to theportions forming the driving region, wherein the width of the dummypatterns at a region overlapping the sealing material is smaller thanthe width of the portions forming the driving region.

[0032] In the liquid crystal device having this structure, since thewiring lines cross over one side of the sealing material and the dummypatterns cross over the other side of the sealing material, compared tothe case in which the wiring lines cross over only one side of thesealing material, the substrate spacing, that is to say, the cell gap,can be kept uniform. Furthermore, since the width of the dummy patternsis made smaller than the width of the electrodes forming the drivingregion, the cell gap at the wiring line side and the cell gap at thedummy pattern side can be kept precisely uniform, even when the width ofthe wiring lines which extend outside the sealing material are formedsmaller than the width of the electrodes forming the driving region.

[0033] (2) In the liquid crystal device according to the presentinvention, the width of the wiring lines at a region overlapping thesealing material may be smaller than the width of the portions formingthe driving region.

[0034] In the liquid crystal device having the structure described in(1) above, the dummy patterns are made smaller than the width of theelectrodes forming the driving region. Accordingly, in the liquidcrystal device having the structure described in (2) above, the widthsof both the wiring lines and the dummy patterns are made smaller thanthe width of the electrodes forming the driving region.

[0035] If the width of the wiring lines is made small, the wiring linescan be squeezed into a small area, even when the overall width of thedriving region is large. Additionally, with the reduced width of thewiring lines, since the width of the dummy patterns can also be reduced,the cell gap at the wiring line side and the cell gap at the dummypattern side can be kept precisely uniform.

[0036] (3) In the liquid crystal device according to the presentinvention, second dummy patterns may be provided on the liquid crystallayer side of the other one of the substrates so as to overlap the dummypatterns. Accordingly, if a pair of dummy patterns is provided so as tooppose each other on both substrates, the cell gap can be controlled andmaintained even more precisely compared to the case where the dummypatterns are provided at only one side.

[0037] (4) In liquid crystal device according to the present invention,the width and spacing of the dummy patterns may be substantially thesame as the width and spacing of the wiring lines. Accordingly, theliquid crystal panel cell gap from the dummy patterns to the wiringlines can be kept uniform even more precisely.

[0038] (5) In liquid crystal device according to the present invention,the width and the spacing of the dummy patterns may be madesubstantially the same as the width and spacing of the wiring lines byadjusting the width of the dummy patterns by forming a step in the sidesof the dummy patterns. By adjusting the width of the dummy patterns byforming a step in this way, the adjustment can be carried out precisely.

[0039] (6) Next, a liquid crystal device according to the presentinvention comprises a pair of substrates which are bonded by a sealingmaterial and a driving region which is formed inside the sealingmaterial, and comprises a liquid crystal layer which is disposed betweenthe pair of substrates and is surrounded by the sealing material;spacers which are dispersed in the sealing material; and electrodes,provided on the liquid crystal layer side of one of the substrates,including portions forming the driving region, wiring lines whichoverlap the sealing material at one side of the driving region whilesupplying a potential to the portions forming the driving region, anddummy patterns which are disposed at the other side of the drivingregion while being connected to the portions forming the driving region;wherein the dummy patterns have a plurality of split parts which areformed by splitting the tip of the electrodes; the plurality of splitparts overlap the sealing material; and the width of each split part issmaller than the width of the driving region.

[0040] According to the liquid crystal device with this structure, sincethe dummy patterns are formed by splitting the ends of the electrodes,the spacing between adjacent dummy patterns can be set smaller or largerto the desired spacing. Therefore, the cell gap can be controlled andmaintained even more precisely.

[0041] (7) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, the width of the wiring lines at the region overlapping thesealing material may be smaller than the width of the portions formingthe driving region.

[0042] (8) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, the width and spacing of the dummy patterns may be madesubstantially the same as the width and spacing of the wiring lines bymatching the ends of the split parts and the unsplit electrodes.

[0043] (9) Next, the liquid crystal device according to the presentinvention comprises a pair of substrates which are bonded by a sealingmaterial and a driving region which is formed inside the sealingmaterial, and comprises a liquid crystal layer which is disposed betweenthe pair of substrates and is surrounded by the sealing materials;spacers which are dispersed in the sealing material; a plurality ofelectrodes, provided on the liquid crystal layer side of one of thesubstrates, including portions forming the driving region, wiring lineswhich overlap the sealing material at one side of the driving regionwhile supplying a potential to the portions forming the driving region,and dummy patterns which are disposed at the other side of the drivingregion while being connected to the driving region; and an IC chip whichis mounted on one of the substrates and which is connected to the wiringlines; wherein each of the wiring lines is disposed so as to convergetowards the IC chip from the driving region; each of the dummy patternscomprises a plurality of split parts formed by splitting the ends of theelectrodes; the plurality of split parts overlap the sealing material;and the widths and spacings of the split parts and the wiring lines aresubstantially the same.

[0044] (10) Next, the liquid crystal device according to the presentinvention comprises a pair of substrates which are bonded by a sealingmaterial and a driving region which is formed inside the sealingmaterial, and comprises a liquid crystal layer which is disposed betweenthe pair of substrates and is surrounded by the sealing material;spacers which are dispersed in the sealing material; a plurality ofelectrodes, provided on the liquid crystal layer side of one of thesubstrates, including portions forming the driving region, wiring lineswhich overlap the sealing material at one side of the driving regionwhile supplying a potential to the portions forming the driving region,and dummy patterns which are disposed at the other side of the drivingregion while being connected to the portions forming the driving region;and an IC chip which is mounted on one of the substrates and which isconnected to the wiring lines; wherein the individual wiring lines aredisposed so as to converge towards the IC chip from the driving region;the plurality of dummy patterns include at least one of the first partsand at least one of the second parts due to the fact that the individualdummy patterns have one of a plurality of first parts which are formedby splitting the ends of the electrodes and a second part which isformed by the end of the electrodes which are not split; the first partsand the second parts overlap the sealing material; and the combinedwidth and spacing of the first parts and the second parts aresubstantially the same as the width and the spacing of the wiring lines.

[0045] (11) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, the widths of each of the individual first parts, the individualsecond parts, and the individual wiring lines may be smaller than thewidths of the individual portions forming the driving region.

[0046] (12) Next, the liquid crystal device according to the presentinvention comprises a pair of substrates which are bonded by a sealingmaterial and a plurality of electrodes formed on a surface of at leastone of the substrates, at least one of the substrates comprising asubstrate projecting part which projects outside the other substrate;wherein the plurality of electrodes includes wiring lines which passthrough the sealing material and extend to the substrate projectingpart, and dummy patterns which pass through the sealing material at theside opposite the substrate projecting part; and the dummy patterns areformed with a width which is smaller than the width of the electrodeswhich are in a portion surrounded by the sealing material.

[0047] In such a liquid crystal device, since it is possible to reducethe dimensional differences in the width of the dummy patterns and thewidth of the wiring lines by forming the dummy patterns to be narrowerthan the electrodes, the nonuniformity in the liquid crystal panel cellgap between the wiring line side and the dummy pattern side can bereduced, and, as a result, the display quality of the liquid crystaldevice can be improved.

[0048] (13) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, the area occupation ratio of portions of the dummy patterns whichpass through the sealing material is substantially the same as the areaoccupation ratio of portions of the wiring lines which pass through thesealing material.

[0049] In the liquid crystal device having such a structure, since thestatus of the area with respect to the sealing material at the dummypattern side and the status of the area with respect to the sealingmaterial at the wiring line side are substantially the same, the cellgap nonuniformity of the liquid crystal panel can be reduced stillfurther.

[0050] Moreover, the terms “area occupation ratio” referred to in thestructure described above mean the proportion of the area of the dummypatterns passing underneath the sealing material based on the area ofthe electrodes passing underneath the sealing material in the case wherethe electrodes pass through the sealing material with their originalwidth unchanged, the proportion of the area of the wiring lines passingunderneath the sealing material based on the area of the electrodespassing underneath the sealing material in the case where the electrodespass through the sealing material with their original width unchanged,and so on. Furthermore, the meaning of the term “substantially the same”of course includes cases which are exactly the same, but also includescases which, although not exactly the same, differ to such an extentthat there are no negative effects in terms of function.

[0051] (14) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, the area occupation ratio of the portions of the dummy patternswhich pass through the sealing material and the area occupation ratio ofthe portions of the wiring lines which pass through the sealing materialmay each be approximately 40% or more. Accordingly, the nonuniformity inthe cell thickness of the liquid crystal panel can be suppressed while,at the same time, allowing the resistance of the electrodes, or in otherwords, the thickness of the electrodes, to be set to an appropriatevalue.

[0052] (15) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, gap-forming material, or spacers may be included in the sealingmaterial. According to the present invention, since the dummy patternsare formed with a width which is smaller than the width of theelectrodes in the portion surrounded by the sealing material, thedimensional difference between the width of the dummy patterns and thewidth of the wiring lines is reduced, and therefore, the differencebetween the number of spacers sitting on the wiring lines and the numberof spacers sitting on the dummy patterns is reduced. As a result, sincethere is substantially no difference in the degree of crushing of thespacers at the wiring line side and the degree of crushing of thespacers at the dummy pattern side, the nonuniformity in cell thicknessof the liquid crystal panel can be reduced, and accordingly, the displayquality of the liquid crystal device can be improved.

[0053] (16) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, an IC chip may be directly mounted on the surface of thesubstrate projecting part and the wiring lines may be connected toterminals of the IC chip. With this structure, the present invention isapplied to a so-called COG-type liquid crystal device. In the COG-typeliquid crystal device, since the plurality of electrodes inside theliquid crystal display region must be made to converge towards theterminal part of the IC chip on the substrate projecting part, the widthof the individual wiring lines which pass through the sealing materialmust be made small. According to the present invention, if the width ofthe dummy patterns at the side opposite to the wiring lines is formed tobe smaller than the width of the electrodes in the portion surrounded bythe sealing material, it is possible to bring the width of the dummypatterns close to the width of the wiring lines at the side oppositethereto. Therefore, for a COG-type liquid crystal panel, the cellthickness can be kept uniform over a wide area.

[0054] (17) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, color filters may be formed on one of the surfaces of the pair ofsubstrates, and the electrodes may be formed on one of the pair ofsubstrates in correspondence with the individual color elements of thecolor filters. This structure is an application of the present inventionto a liquid crystal device capable of color display.

[0055] Since the color filters are generally formed by R (red), G(green), and B (blue) individual color elements, the number ofelectrodes must be three times larger than in the case of a black andwhite monaural display, and therefore, the width of the electrodes mustbe made even smaller. Reducing the thickness of the electrodes meansthat the electrical resistance of the electrodes increases by thatamount, and in order to avoid this, the film thickness of the electrodesmust be increased. Accordingly, when the film thickness of theelectrodes is large, if the number of spacers sitting on the wiringlines at one end of the electrodes is different from the number ofspacers sitting on the dummy patterns at the other end of theelectrodes, and it means that, as a result of the difference,nonuniformity in the cell thickness easily occurs between the wiringline side and the dummy pattern side.

[0056] In the above phenomenon, as in the present invention, if thewidth of the dummy patterns at the side opposite the wiring lines isformed smaller than the width of the electrodes in the portionsurrounded by the sealing material, since it is possible to bring thewidth of the dummy patterns close to the width of the wiring lines atthe side opposite thereto, the number of spacers sitting on the dummypatterns can be brought close to the number of gap members sitting onthe wiring lines at the side opposite thereto. Therefore, it is possibleto reliably prevent the cell thickness from becoming nonuniform even ina liquid crystal panel capable of color display in which the electrodefilm thickness tends to be increased.

[0057] (18) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, stripe-shaped electrodes which orthogonally intersect each othermay be formed on the pair of substrates, and the liquid crystal devicemay be a simple matrix type in which each of the orthogonallyintersecting portions forms a pixel.

[0058] Among liquid crystal devices, there are active-matrix-type liquidcrystal devices which use active elements and simple-matrix-type liquidcrystal devices which do not use active elements. In thesimple-matrix-type liquid crystal devices, generally, stripe-shapedelectrodes which orthogonally intersect each other are formed on a pairof substrates, each intersecting portion forms one single pixel, and aplurality of the pixels are arranged in the form of a dot matrixoverall. The present invention is preferably applied to such asimple-matrix-type liquid crystal device. The reason is that, in thesimple-matrix-type liquid crystal device, a difference in the width ofthe patterns between the wiring lines at the substrate projecting sideand the dummy patterns at the side opposite thereto easily occurs.

[0059] (19) Next, the electronic apparatus according to the presentinvention comprises a liquid crystal device and a control circuit forcontrolling the operation of the liquid crystal device; wherein theliquid crystal device comprises a pair of substrates bonded by a sealingmaterial and a plurality of electrodes formed on the surface of at leastone of the substrates, at least one of the substrates comprising asubstrate projecting part which projects outside the other substrate;the plurality of electrodes comprises wiring lines which pass throughthe sealing material and extend to the substrate projecting part anddummy patterns which pass through the sealing material at the sideopposite to the substrate projecting part; and the dummy patterns areformed with a width which is smaller than the width of the electrodes ina portion surrounded by the sealing material.

[0060] (20) Next, the liquid crystal device according to the presentinvention comprises a pair of substrates bonded by a sealing materialand a plurality of electrodes formed on the surface of at least one ofthe substrates, a driving region being provided inside the sealingmaterial; wherein the electrodes comprise wiring lines which passthrough a part of the sealing material which is formed at one side ofthe driving region and are led to the outside, and dummy patterns whichare on the surface of at least one of the pair of substrates and whichpass through a part of the sealing material which is formed at the otherside of the driving region; and the dummy patterns are formed so as topass through the sealing material with a width and a spacing which aredifferent from the width and the spacing of the electrodes inside thedriving region.

[0061] According to this invention, by forming the dummy patterns sothat they pass through the sealing material with a width and a spacingwhich are different from the width and the spacing of the electrodesinside the driving region, even if there is a large difference betweenthe width and spacing of the electrodes and the width and spacing of thewiring lines, since it is possible to bring them close to the width andthe spacing of the portions of the wiring lines passing through thesealing material, the difference between the area occupation ratio ofthe dummy patterns and the area occupation ratio of the wiring lineswith respect to the sealing material is reduced, and it is possible toachieve a substrate spacing which does not widely vary along the sealingmaterial while, at the same time, allowing the difference in substratespacing at the portions of the sealing material at either side of thedriving region to be reduced. Accordingly, the substrate spacing in thedriving region can be kept uniform and the display quality can beimproved.

[0062] (21) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, the dummy patterns may be connected to the electrodes. The dummypatterns in this structure are electrically connected to the wiringlines which form the electrodes or part of the electrodes, and areformed on the surface of one of the substrates as part of theelectrodes.

[0063] (22) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, the dummy patterns may be at least one part of dummy patternsformed on the surface of the other substrate opposite to the electrodes.

[0064] In this structure, the dummy patterns may be electricallyconnected to the electrodes or the wiring lines, or alternatively, theymay be independent dummy patterns which are not electrically connectedto electrodes and the wiring lines. Independent dummy patterns arenormally formed so as to oppose the dummy patterns which are connectedto the electrodes.

[0065] In the present invention, as described above, the dummy patternsare provided in order to reduce the difference between the substratespacing at the portions of the sealing material where the wiring linespass through and the substrate spacing at the portions of the sealingmaterial where the wiring lines do not pass through, and furthermore,they are provided so that the portion outside the driving region andinside the region where the liquid crystal is encapsulated by thesealing material does not appear to be very different from the drivingregion.

[0066] As described above, the dummy patterns may be formed on eitherone of the pair of substrates, or alternatively, they may be formed onboth of the substrates so that the dummy patterns are oriented parallelto each other. Accordingly, even if the dummy patterns which passthrough the sealing material are formed on either one of the pair ofsubstrates, there is no change in their effect on the substrate spacing.Furthermore, when there are dummy patterns opposing the wiring lines, itis preferable for the dummy patterns to be formed so as to be orientedparallel to each other on both substrates.

[0067] (23) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, the dummy patterns may be formed so as to pass through thesealing material with a width and a spacing which lean more towards thewidth and the spacing of the wiring lines than the width and the spacingof the electrodes inside the driving region.

[0068] For example, when the width and spacing of the wiring lines aresmaller than the width and spacing of the electrodes, the dummy patternsare formed so as to pass through the sealing material with a width and aspacing which are smaller than the width and the spacing of theelectrodes.

[0069] According to the liquid crystal device having this structure, thedifference between the substrate spacing affected by the dummy patternspassing through the sealing material and the substrate spacing affectedby the wiring lines can be reduced compared to the case in which thedummy patterns are formed with the same width and spacing as theelectrodes.

[0070] (24) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, the dummy patterns may be formed so as to pass through thesealing material with a width and a spacing which are closer to thewidth and the spacing of the wiring lines than the width and the spacingof the electrodes inside the driving region. More preferably, the dummypatterns are formed so as to pass through the sealing material with awidth and a spacing which are substantially the same as the width andthe spacing of the wiring lines.

[0071] (25) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, the area occupation ratio of the dummy patterns with respect tothe sealing material may be formed so as to lean more towards the valueof the area occupation ratio of the wiring lines with respect to thesealing material than the area occupation ratio in the case where theelectrodes inside the driving region pass through the sealing materialunchanged.

[0072] For example, in the case where the area occupation ratio of thewiring lines is smaller than the area occupation ratio of the electrodeswhen it is assumed that the electrodes are formed so as to extended andpass through the sealing material with their original, unchanged widthand spacing, the dummy patterns are formed so as to pass through thesealing material with an area occupation ratio which is smaller than thearea occupation ratio of the electrodes assumed above.

[0073] Accordingly, since it is possible to reduce the differencebetween the area occupation ratio of the dummy patterns and the areaoccupation ratio of the wiring lines, the difference in substratespacing between the part in the sealing material at one side of thedriving region and the part at the other side can be reduced.

[0074] (26) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, the area occupation ratio of the dummy patterns with respect tothe sealing material may be formed so as to be closer in value to thearea occupation ratio of the wiring lines with respect to the sealingmaterial than the area occupation ratio in the case where the electrodesinside the driving region pass through the sealing material unchanged.More preferably, the area occupation ratio of the dummy patterns withrespect to the sealing material is set to be substantially the same asthe area occupation ratio of the wiring lines with respect to thesealing material.

[0075] In the structure described above, the term “area occupationratio” means the proportion of the area of the parts of the wiring linesor dummy patterns which pass through the sealing material with respectto the area of the sealing material, and this area occupation ratio isset according to the width and spacing of the wiring lines or dummypatterns. More concretely, in the case where a plurality of patterns arearrayed along the sealing material, the proportion of area mentionedabove means the ratio of the passing area of the pattern with respect tothe total area of the sealing material in one period within those arrayperiods. Therefore, if the array period is constant, the area occupationratio is also constant along the sealing material; however, if the arrayperiod is not constant, the area occupation ratio varies along thesealing material.

[0076] (27) Next, a liquid crystal device according to the presentinvention comprises a pair of substrates bonded by a sealing material, aplurality of first electrodes formed on the surface of one of thesubstrates, and a plurality of second electrodes formed on the surfaceof the other substrate, a driving region being provided inside thesealing material; wherein the first electrodes are provided with wiringlines which pass through a part of the sealing material formed at oneside of the driving region and which are led towards the outside; thesecond electrodes are provided with dummy patterns which pass through apart of the sealing material formed at the other side of the drivingregion; and the dummy patterns are formed with a width which isdifferent from the width of the first electrodes.

[0077] According to this liquid crystal device, by forming the dummypatterns with a width which differs from the width of the firstelectrodes, when the width of the first electrodes and the width of thewiring lines are different, by making the width of the dummy patternsdifferent from the width of the first electrodes, it is possible toreduce the difference between the substrate spacing at a part of thesealing material at one side of the driving region and the substratespacing at a part of the sealing material at the other side of thedriving region.

[0078] (28) In the liquid crystal device according to the presentinvention, the dummy patterns may be formed so as to pass through thesealing material with a width and a spacing which leans more towards thewidth and the spacing of the wiring lines than the width and the spacingof the first electrodes inside the driving region. For example, in thecase where the width and spacing of the wiring lines are smaller thanthe width and spacing of the electrodes, the dummy patterns are formedso as to pass through the sealing material with a width and a spacingwhich are smaller than the width and the spacing of the electrodes.

[0079] (29) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, the dummy patterns may be formed so as to pass through thesealing material with a width and a spacing which is closer to the widthand the spacing of the wiring lines than the width and the spacing ofthe first electrodes inside the driving region. More preferably, thedummy patterns are formed so as to pass through the sealing materialwith a width and a spacing which are substantially the same as the widthand the spacing of the wiring lines.

[0080] (30) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, the area occupation ratio of the dummy patterns with respect tothe sealing material may be formed so as to lean more towards the valueof the area occupation ratio of the wiring lines with respect to thesealing material than the area occupation ratio when it is assumed thatthe electrodes inside the driving region are extended and pass throughthe sealing material with the original width and spacing thereofunchanged.

[0081] For example, in the case where the area occupation ratio of thewiring lines is smaller than the area occupation ratio of the electrodeswhen it is assumed that the electrodes formed so as to extend and passthrough the sealing material with their original, unchanged width andspacing, the dummy patterns are formed so as to have an area occupationratio which is smaller than the area occupation ratio of the electrodesassumed above.

[0082] (31) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, the area occupation ratio of the dummy patterns with respect tothe sealing material may be formed so as to be closer in value to thearea occupation ratio of the wiring lines with respect to the sealingmaterial than the area occupation ratio when it is assumed that theelectrodes inside the driving region are extended and pass through thesealing material with the original width and spacing thereof unchanged.More preferably, the area occupation ratio of the dummy patterns withrespect to the sealing material is formed to be substantially the sameas the area occupation ratio of the wiring lines with respect to thesealing material.

[0083] (32) Next, a liquid crystal device according to the presentinvention comprises a pair of substrates bonded by a sealing material, aplurality of first electrodes formed on the surface of one of thesubstrates, and a plurality of second electrodes formed on the surfaceof the other substrate, a driving region being provided inside thesealing material; wherein the first electrodes are provided with wiringlines which pass through a part of the sealing material formed at oneside of the driving region and which are led towards the outside, andfirst dummy patterns which pass through a part of the sealing materialformed at the other side of the driving region; the second electrodesare provided with third dummy patterns which oppose the wiring lines,and second dummy patterns which oppose the first dummy patterns; and thesum of the area occupation ratio of the first dummy patterns withrespect to the sealing material and the area occupation ratio of thesecond dummy patterns with respect to the sealing material has a valuewhich leans more towards the sum of the area occupation ratio of thewiring lines with respect to the sealing material and the areaoccupation ratio of the third dummy patterns with respect to the sealingmaterial than two times the area occupation ratio when it is assumedthat the first electrodes are extended and pass through the sealingmaterial with the original width and spacing thereof unchanged.

[0084] For example, in the above assumption, in the case where the sumof the area occupation ratio of the wiring lines and the area occupationratio of the third dummy patterns is smaller than two times the areaoccupation ratio of the first electrodes, the sum of the area occupationratio of the first dummy patterns with respect to the sealing materialand the area occupation ratio of the second dummy patterns with respectto the sealing material is formed so as to be smaller than two times thearea occupation ratio of the first electrodes in the above assumption.

[0085] Since the liquid crystal device having the structure describedabove is formed such that the first electrodes and the second electrodesare each formed on the surfaces of the pair of substrates, the wiringlines and the third dummy patterns oppose each other and pass through apart in the sealing material at one side of the driving region, and thefirst dummy patterns and the second dummy patterns oppose each other andpass through a part in the sealing material at the other side of thedriving region, the substrate spacing at the part of the sealingmaterial at one side of the driving region is set according to thepassing aspect of the wiring lines and the third dummy patterns, whilethe substrate spacing at the part of the sealing material at the otherside of the driving region is set according to the passing aspect of thefirst dummy patterns and the second dummy patterns.

[0086] As described above, since the sum of the area occupation ratio ofthe first dummy patterns and the area occupation ratio of the seconddummy patterns has a value which leans more towards the sum of the areaoccupation ratio of the wiring lines and the area occupation ratio ofthe third dummy patterns than two times the area occupation ratio of thefirst electrodes, in the above assumption, while extending the firstelectrodes according to the above assumption with their original,unchanged width and spacing and forming the first dummy patterns, thedifference in substrate spacing between both portions at either side ofthe driving region can be reduced when compared to the case where thesecond dummy patterns are formed with the same width and the samespacing and then pass through the sealing material.

[0087] (33) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, the sum of the area occupation ratio of the first dummy patternswith respect to the sealing material and the area occupation ratio ofthe second dummy patterns with respect to the sealing material may becloser in value to the sum of the area occupation ratio of the wiringlines with respect to the sealing material and the area occupation ratioof the third dummy patterns with respect to the sealing material thantwo times the area occupation ratio when it is assumed that the firstelectrodes are extended and pass through the sealing material with theoriginal width and spacing thereof unchanged.

[0088] More preferably, the sum of the area occupation ratio of thefirst dummy patterns with respect to the sealing material and the areaoccupation ratio of the second dummy patterns with respect to thesealing material is set to be substantially the same as the sum of thearea occupation ratio of the wiring lines with respect to the sealingmaterial and the area occupation ratio of the third dummy patterns withrespect to the sealing material.

[0089] (34) Next, a liquid crystal device according to the presentinvention comprises a pair of substrates bonded by a sealing material, aplurality of first electrodes formed on the surface of one of thesubstrates, and a plurality of second electrodes formed on the surfaceof the other substrate, a driving region being provided inside thesealing material; wherein the first electrodes are provided with wiringlines which pass through a part of the sealing material formed at oneside of the driving region and which are led towards the outside, andfirst dummy patterns which pass through a part of the sealing materialformed at the other side of the driving region; the second electrodesare provided with third dummy patterns which oppose the wiring lines,and second dummy patterns which oppose the first dummy patterns; the sumof the width of the parts of the first dummy patterns which pass throughthe sealing material and the width of the parts of the second dummypatterns which pass through the sealing material has a value which leansmore towards the sum of the width of the parts of the wiring lines whichpass through the sealing material and the width of the parts of thethird dummy patterns which pass through the sealing material than twotimes the width of the first electrodes; and the sum of the spacingbetween the parts of the first dummy patterns which pass through thesealing material and the spacing between the parts of the second dummypatterns which pass through the sealing material has a value which leansmore towards the sum of the spacing between the parts of the wiringlines which pass through the sealing material and the spacing betweenthe parts of the third dummy pattern which pass through the sealingmaterial than two times the spacing between the first electrodes.

[0090] For example, when the sum of the width of the wiring lines andthe width of the third dummy patterns is smaller than two times thewidth of the first electrodes, the sum of the width of the part passingthe sealing material at the first dummy patterns and the width of thepart passing the sealing material at the second dummy patterns is formedto be smaller than two times the width of the first electrodes, andfurthermore, when the sum of the spacing between the wiring lines andthe spacing between the third dummy patterns is smaller than two timesthe spacing between the first electrodes, the sum of the spacing betweenportions passing the sealing material at the first dummy patterns andthe spacing between portions passing the sealing material at the seconddummy patterns is formed to be smaller than two times the spacingbetween the first electrodes.

[0091] According to the liquid crystal device having the structuredescribed above, regarding the wiring lines and the third dummy patternswhich pass both the front and rear surfaces of the part at one side ofthe sealing material, as well as the first dummy patterns and seconddummy patterns which pass both the front and rear surfaces of the partat the other side of the sealing material, because both the sum of thewidths and the sum of the spacings are closer in value to each otherthan two times the width and two times the spacing of the firstelectrodes, the difference in substrate spacing at both portions of thesealing material can be reduced.

[0092] (35) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, the sum of the width of the parts of the first dummy patternswhich pass through the sealing material and the width of the parts ofthe second dummy patterns which pass through the sealing material may becloser in value to the sum of the width of the parts of the wiring lineswhich pass through the sealing material and the width of the parts ofthe third dummy patterns which pass through the sealing material thantwo times the width of the first electrodes; and the sum of the spacingbetween the parts of the first dummy patterns which pass through thesealing material and the spacing between the parts of the second dummypatterns which pass through the sealing material may be closer in valueto the sum of the spacing between the parts of the wiring lines whichpass through the sealing material and the spacing between the parts ofthe third dummy pattern which pass through the sealing material than twotimes the spacing between the first electrodes.

[0093] More preferably, the sum of the width of the part passing thesealing material at the first dummy patterns and the width of the partpassing the sealing material at the second dummy patterns is set to besubstantially the same as the sum of the width of the part passing thesealing material at the wiring lines and the width of the part passingthe sealing material at the third dummy patterns, and furthermore, thesum of the spacing between the parts passing the sealing material at thefirst dummy patterns and the spacing between the parts passing thesealing material at the second dummy patterns is set to be substantiallythe same as the sum of the spacing between the parts passing the sealingmaterial at the wiring lines and the spacing between the parts passingthe sealing material at the third dummy patterns.

[0094] (36) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, spacers for regulating the spacing between the substrates may bemixed in the sealing material. Since the degree of crushing of thespacers changes according to increases and decreases in the areaoccupation ratios of the individual patterns passing through the sealingmaterial and the substrate spacing changes in response to this degree ofcrushing, the present invention is particularly effective when appliedto the case where the spacers are mixed in the sealing material.

[0095] (37) The liquid crystal device with the structure described abovemay form a simple-matrix-type liquid crystal panel by formingelectrodes, which orthogonally intersect each other, in the form ofstripes on each of the surfaces of the pair of substrates. The presentinvention can be applied to such a simple-matrix-type liquid crystalpanel and also to an active-matrix-type liquid crystal panel; however,it is preferably applied to the simple-matrix-type liquid crystal panel.The reason is that, in the simple-matrix-type liquid crystal panel, adifference in pattern width between the wiring lines and the electrodeseasily occurs.

[0096] (38) The liquid crystal device with the structure described abovefurther comprises color filters including a plurality of color elements,wherein, the plurality of electrodes which are formed on the surface ofone of the pair of the substrates are formed at each color element.

[0097] In the case where color filters are used, as in this liquidcrystal device, since it is necessary to provide the electrodescorresponding to each of the plurality of color elements (for example,the three colors, red, green, and blue), the number of electrodesincreases and, as a result, it is necessary to reduce the electrodewidth. In this case, in order to control the increase in electricalresistance, the electrodes must be formed with a thickness which isincreased by that amount, and therefore, the effect on the substratespacing due to the difference in area occupation ratios of theindividual patterns passing through the sealing material is large.Furthermore, since an increase in the number of electrodes increases theoverall degree of convergence of the wiring lines, the differencebetween the width of the electrodes and the width of the wiring lines aswell as the difference between the spacing between the electrodes andthe spacing between the wiring lines increase. Therefore, a differencein substrate spacing easily occurs, and for that reason, it isparticularly effective to apply the present invention.

[0098] (39) In the liquid crystal device with the structure describedabove, an IC chip may be mounted on at least one of the pair ofsubstrates and the wiring lines may be connected to terminals of the ICchip.

[0099] In the liquid crystal device having the structure describedabove, since it is necessary to converge the wiring lines towards theterminal portion of the mounted IC chip, the difference between thewiring line width and the electrode width as well as the differencebetween the wiring line pitch and the electrode pitch are easilyincreased, and therefore, it is particularly effective to apply thepresent invention.

[0100] (40) Next, the electronic apparatus according to the presentinvention comprises a liquid crystal device and control means forcontrolling the operation of the liquid crystal device, wherein theliquid crystal device may be formed of the liquid crystal device havingthe various structures described above. As such an electronic apparatus,as long as it is provided with a liquid crystal device, the kind ofapparatus is not significant; however, in particular, portableelectronic devices such as mobile telephones, mobile informationterminals, etc. are suitable.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0101]FIG. 1 is a partially cut-away plan view showing one embodiment ofa liquid crystal device according to the present invention.

[0102]FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view showing the cross-sectionalstructure of the liquid crystal device taken along line II-II in FIG. 1.

[0103]FIG. 3 shows an enlarged view of the portions indicated by arrowsA and B in FIG. 1.

[0104]FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the relationship between theelectrode film thickness and the spacers.

[0105]FIG. 5 is a partially cut-away plan view showing the planarstructure of another embodiment of the liquid crystal panel which is theprincipal element of the liquid crystal device according to the presentinvention.

[0106]FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing the cross-sectional structureof the liquid crystal panel taken along the line VI-VI in FIG. 5.

[0107]FIG. 7 is an enlarged plan view showing the region indicated byarrow VII in FIG. 5.

[0108]FIG. 8 is an enlarged plan view showing the region indicated byarrow VIII in FIG. 5.

[0109]FIG. 9(a) is a sectional view showing the cross-sectionalstructure of a sealing portion in a conventional liquid crystal panel,and FIG. 9(b) is a sectional view showing the cross-sectional structureof a sealing portion in the liquid crystal panel shown in FIG. 5.

[0110]FIG. 10 is an enlarged plan view showing the region indicated byarrow X in FIG. 5.

[0111]FIG. 11 is an enlarged plan view showing the region indicated byarrow XI in FIG. 5.

[0112]FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of theelectronic apparatus according to the present invention.

[0113]FIG. 13 is a perspective diagram showing another embodiment of anelectronic apparatus according to the present invention.

[0114]FIG. 14 is a perspective diagram showing yet another embodiment ofan electronic apparatus according to the present invention.

[0115]FIG. 15 is a plan view showing the major portion of one example ofa conventional liquid crystal device.

[0116]FIG. 16 is a partially cut-away plan view showing another exampleof a conventional liquid crystal device.

[0117]FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an enlarged view of the principalpart in FIG. 16. Reference Numerals  1 liquid crystal device  2 sealingmaterial  2a liquid crystal injection port  3a, 3b substrates  4a, 4bsubstrate projecting parts liquid crystal panel  6a, 6b liquid crystaldriving ICs (IC chips)  8a, 8b base members  9a, 9b electrodes 13 colorfilter 16 spacer 17a, 17b wiring lines 19a, 19b dummy patterns 37a, 37bwiring line dummy patterns 38a, 38b opposing dummy patterns 45 liquidcrystal panel G cell gap L liquid crystal R liquid crystal encapsulatingregion Y peripheral region Z driving region

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[0118] (First Embodiment)

[0119] The case in which a COG-type liquid crystal device, which is asimple matrix type, is applied to the present invention will bedescribed below as an example. FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of a liquidcrystal device according to the present invention. This liquid crystaldevice 1 includes a pair of substrates 3 a and 3 b which are bonded toeach other by a sealing material 2. The first substrate 3 a has asubstrate projecting part 4 a which projects further outside than thesecond substrate 3 b, and the second substrate 3 b has a substrateprojecting part 4 b which projects further outside than the firstsubstrate 3 a.

[0120] A liquid crystal driving IC 6 a is mounted on the surface of thesubstrate projecting part 4 a with an ACF (Anisotropic Conductive Film)7, and a liquid crystal driving IC 6 b is mounted on the surface of thesubstrate projecting part 4 b with the ACF 7. In the present embodiment,the liquid crystal driving IC 6 a includes a data signal supplyingcircuit and the liquid crystal driving IC 6 b includes a scanning signalsupplying circuit.

[0121] As shown in FIG. 2, the first substrate 3 a has a structure inwhich stripe-shaped first electrodes 9 a are formed on the insidesurface of a base member 8 a which is made of glass, plastic, or thelike, an orientation film 11 a is deposited thereon, and then apolarizing plate 12 a is mounted onto the outside surface of the basemember 8 a by, for example, bonding with an adhesive. The polarizingplate 12 a has a transflector 26 applied thereto. Likewise, the secondsubstrate 3 b has a structure in which color filters 13 are formed onthe inside surface of a base member 8 b which is made of glass, plastic,or the like, stripe-shaped second electrodes 9 b are formed thereon, anorientation film 11 b is formed on the second electrodes 9 b, and then apolarizing plate 12 b is mounted onto the outside surface of the basemember 8 b by, for example, bonding with an adhesive.

[0122] The first electrodes 9 a and the second electrodes 9 b are formedby a lithographic method or the like in a predetermined pattern, forexample, in the form of stripes, using, for example, ITO (Indium TinOxide) as the material. The orientation film 11 a and the orientationfilm 11 b are formed by applying, for example, a polyimide solutionfollowed by baking. The main chains of the polymer in this polyimide aredrawn out in a predetermined direction by applying a rubbing treatment,and the liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal injected into thecell gap are oriented along the stretching direction of the orientationlayer.

[0123] In the actual liquid crystal device, apart from the opticalelements described above, other optical elements may be provided asnecessary. For example, a planarizing layer may be formed on top of thecolor filter 13. Furthermore, it is possible to place a phase plateeither between the base member 8 b and the polarizing plate 12 b orbetween the base member 8 a and the polarizing plate 12 a.

[0124] Spacers 14 having, for example, a spherical shape, aredistributed on the inside surface of the first substrate 3 a or thesecond substrate 3 b. Then, the first substrate 3 a and the secondsubstrate 3 b are bonded together by a sealing material 2 in an alignedstate, that is to say, they are positioned and brought together so thatthe first electrodes 9 a and the second electrodes 9 b orthogonallyintersect each other.

[0125] A liquid crystal injection port 2 a is formed at an appropriateposition of the sealing material 2, and, through this liquid crystalinjection port 2 a, liquid crystal, a STN (Super Twisted Nematic) liquidcrystal L in the present embodiment, is injected into the regionsurrounded by the first substrate 3 a, the second substrate 3 b, and thesealing material 2, that is to say, a liquid crystal encapsulatingregion. Then, after injection, the liquid crystal injection port 2 a issealed with a resin or the like. The function of the spacers 14 is tokeep the thickness of the cell gap constant. Spherical or cylindricalgap members, that is to say, spacers 16, are dispersed in the sealingmaterial 2. These spacers 16 also function to keep the thickness of thecell gap constant.

[0126] In FIG. 1 the stripe-shaped first electrodes 9 a which are formedon the first substrate 3 a are patterned so that they pass through thesealing material 2 and are extended onto the substrate projecting part 4a, and these extended patterns, that is to say, the wiring lines 17 a,are electrically connected to the terminals of the liquid crystaldriving IC 6 a by conductive particles included in the ACF 7. Referencenumeral 18 a refers to terminal patterns which are formed on the surfaceof the substrate projecting part 4 a, and these terminal patterns areelectrically connected to other terminals of the liquid crystal drivingIC 6 a by the conductive particles included in the ACF 7.

[0127] On the other hand, the stripe-shaped second electrodes 9 b whichare formed on the second substrate 3 b are patterned so that they passthrough the sealing material 2 and are extended onto the substrateprojecting part 4 b, and these extended patterns, that is to say, thewiring lines 17 b, are electrically connected to the terminals of theliquid crystal driving IC 6 b by conductive particles included in theACF 7. Reference numeral 18 b refers to terminal patterns which areformed on the surface of the substrate projecting part 4 b, and theseterminal patterns are electrically connected to other terminals of theliquid crystal driving IC 6 b by the conductive particles included inthe ACF 7.

[0128] For convenience, only a few of the first electrodes 9 a and thesecond electrodes 9 b are shown with a large spacing in FIG. 1; however,in practice a larger number of electrodes are formed at high density inparallel to each other and with a smaller spacing. For example, in thecase of a monochrome display, rather than a color display, the number offirst electrodes 9 a formed at the data-line side is 120, and the numberof second electrodes 9 b formed at the scanning-line side is 160. In thecase of the color display, as in the present embodiment, the number offirst electrodes 9 a formed at the data-line side is 120×3=360, and thenumber of second electrodes 9 b formed at the scanning-line side is 160.

[0129]FIG. 3 shows an expanded view of the portions indicated by arrow Aand arrow B in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 3, the wiring lines 17 a of thefirst electrodes 9 a pass underneath the sealing material 2 and extendonto the substrate projecting part 4 a. These wiring lines 17 a areformed with a smaller width than the first electrodes 9 a in the liquidcrystal encapsulating region R. The reason for this is so that thewiring lines 17 a can converge towards the liquid crystal driving IC 6 a(Refer to FIG. 1). On the other hand, the first electrodes 9 a havedummy patterns 19 a which pass underneath the sealing material 2 at theside opposite the substrate projecting part 4 a. These dummy patterns 19a are formed in order to prevent the height of the liquid crystalencapsulating region R, that is to say, the cell gap, or in other words,the cell thickness, from becoming nonuniform between the substrateprojecting part 4 a side and the side opposite thereto. In the presentembodiment, these extended dummy patterns 19 a are formed with a smallerwidth than the electrodes 9 a in the liquid crystal encapsulating regionR.

[0130] Regarding the second electrodes 9 b which are formed on thesecond substrate 3 b, similarly to the first electrodes 9 a, the wiringlines 17 b are formed with a smaller width than the second electrodes 9b. In addition, although they are not shown in FIG. 3, at the sideopposite to the substrate projecting part 4 b, the second electrodes 9 bhave dummy patterns with a smaller width than the second electrodes 9 b,similarly to the first electrodes 9 a. Without being especially limited,when reference is made to the wiring lines 17 a in the description givenbelow, the wiring lines 17 b are also included, and furthermore, whenreference is made to the dummy patterns 19 a, the dummy patterns of thesecond electrodes 9 b are also included.

[0131] In the present embodiment, as described above, since the dummypatterns 19 a are formed with a width which is smaller than the width ofthe first electrodes 9 a, the areal condition of the wiring lines 17 awhich pass underneath the sealing material 2 at the substrate projectingpart 4 a side and the areal condition of the dummy patterns 19 a whichpass underneath the sealing material 2 at the side opposite thereto canbe set to be closer than in the case of the conventional device shown inFIG. 15 or substantially the same. Therefore, the cell thicknessnonuniformity between the substrate projecting part 4 a side and theside opposite thereto is reduced, and thus it is possible to make thecell thickness uniform.

[0132] In the present embodiment, the spacers 16 are included in thesealing material 2. As in the conventional device shown in FIG. 15, whenthere is a large difference in area between the wiring lines 156 a andthe dummy patterns 157 a, there is a large difference between the numberof spacers 158 sitting on the wiring lines 156 a and the number ofspacers 158 sitting on the dummy patterns 157 a. Pressure is applied tothese spacers 158 by the first substrate 151 a and the second substrate151 b; however, when there is a large difference in the number ofspacers 158 at the wiring line 156 a side and at the dummy pattern 157 aside, when the spacers 158 receive the pressure, the amount of crushingat both sides is different. As a result, there is a danger that anonuniformity in the cell thickness will occur between the wiring line156 a side and the dummy pattern 157 a side.

[0133] Accordingly, as in the present embodiment shown in FIG. 3, if thewidth of the dummy patterns 19 a is set to be smaller than the width ofthe first electrodes 9 a in the liquid crystal encapsulating region R,the number of spacers 16 sitting on the dummy patterns 19 a can bebrought close to or substantially the same as the number of spacers 16sitting on the wiring lines 17 a. Therefore, the occurrence ofnonuniformity in the cell thickness can be prevented.

[0134] As in the present embodiment, in the case where color display isperformed by using the color filters 13 (refer to FIG. 2), since thenumber of first electrodes 9 a is large, the width of the individualelectrodes 9 a must be small. In that case, the width of the wiringlines 17 a which extend from the first electrodes 9 a must also be madeaccordingly smaller. Therefore, when the width of the electrodes is madesmaller, in order to maintain the electrical resistance of theelectrodes at a fixed value, the film thickness of the electrodes, andthus the film thickness of the wiring lines 17 a, must be increased.

[0135] When the relationship between the film thickness of the wiringlines 17 a and the spacers 16 is examined, as shown in FIG. 4(a), whenthe film thickness of the wiring lines 17 a is small, there is not avery large change in the cell gap G due to whether or not the spacers 16are sitting on the wiring lines 17 a. It is thought that the reason forthis is that, since the wiring lines 17 a are thin, even the spacers 16which exist between pairs of adjacent wiring lines 17 a can contributeto maintaining the cell gap G.

[0136] When the film thickness of the wiring lines 17 a becomes large,as shown in FIG. 4(b), the degree to which the spacers 16 existingbetween pairs of adjacent wiring lines 17 a maintain the cell gap G issmall, and, for that reason, conditions such as whether or not thespacers 16 are sitting on the wiring lines 17 a, or whether the numberof such spacers is large or small, exert a large influence on the cellgap G

[0137] Since color filters are used in the present embodiment, the widthof the electrodes 9 a is set to be small. Accordingly, when the filmthickness of the electrodes 9 a is set to be large, since there is alarge difference in the number of spacers 158 sitting on the wiringlines 156 a and the dummy patterns 157 a shown in FIG. 15 as a result ofthe large difference in their widths, there is a risk that the cell gapG will become nonuniform, as explained in FIG. 4(b). Therefore, in thepresent embodiment, when the width of the dummy patterns 19 a in FIG. 3is decreased and thus brought close to or substantially the same as thewidth of the wiring lines 17 a, it is possible to prevent the occurrenceof a large difference in the number of spacers 158 sitting on both thedummy patterns 19 a and the wiring lines 17 a. Therefore, it is alsopossible to prevent nonuniformity in the cell gap G.

[0138] In particular, in the present embodiment, the area occupationratio of the portions of the dummy patterns 19 a which pass through thesealing material 2 is set to substantially the same value, which isdesirably 40% or more, of the area occupation ratio of the portions ofthe wiring lines 17 a passing through the sealing material 2. The areaoccupation ratio referred to here means the proportion of the area ofthe wiring lines 17 a passing through the sealing material 2 and thearea of the dummy patterns 19 a passing through the sealing material 2,using the area when the electrodes 9 a pass through the sealing material2 with their original, unchanged width as a reference.

[0139] When the area occupation ratio of the dummy patterns 19 a and thearea occupation ratio of the wiring lines 17 a are set to besubstantially the same, since the areal condition of the wiring lines 17a and the areal condition of the dummy patterns 19 a with respect to thesealing material 2 are substantially the same, it is possible to preventthe occurrence of nonuniformity in the cell gap. Moreover, when thespacers 16 are included in the sealing material 2, it is possible tomake the numbers of spacers 16 sitting on the dummy patterns 19 a andthe wiring lines 17 a substantially the same. Therefore, it is possibleto securely prevent the occurrence of nonuniformity in the cell gap.

[0140] When the area occupation ratios of the dummy patterns 19 a andthe wiring lines 17 a are set to be the same, i.e. approximately 40% ormore, it is possible to set the film thickness of the first electrodes 9a to the desired dimensions according to the size of the spacers 16. Asa result, it has been experimentally confirmed by the present inventorsthat this is desirable in order to obtain a uniform cell gap.

[0141] The panel structure shown in FIG. 2 which is formed by bonding afirst substrate 3 a and a second substrate 3 b with a sealing material 2and injecting a liquid crystal L into the interior is generally referredto as a liquid crystal panel 5. In the present embodiment, the liquidcrystal driving IC 6 a is directly mounted on the substrate projectingpart 4 a of the first substrate 3 a in the liquid crystal panel 5, andthe liquid crystal driving IC 6 b is directly mounted on the substrateprojecting part 4 b of the second substrate 3 b (refer to FIG. 1), thusforming a COG-type liquid crystal device, as mentioned previously.

[0142] Furthermore, a so-called backlight 22 is provided as anillumination device at the side opposite to the display surface of theliquid crystal panel 5, in other words, at the lower surface of theliquid crystal panel 5 in FIG. 2, with a cushioning material 21 formedof rubber or the like therebetween. This backlight 22 includes alight-guiding member 23 which is formed of a transparent resin or thelike, a diffusing sheet 24 which is provided on the surface of thelight-guiding member 23 at the liquid crystal panel side, a reflectivesheet 27 which is provided on the surface of the light-guiding member 23opposite to the liquid crystal panel 5 side, and an LED (Light EmittingDiode) 28 as a light source which is positioned so as to face a lightincident surface 23 a of the light-guiding member 23. Reference numeral29 indicates an LED substrate on which a suitable wiring pattern forsupporting the LED 28 is formed.

[0143] A control board 31 is disposed at an appropriate location aroundthe liquid crystal panel 5, for example, at the rear surface of thebacklight 22. On this control board 31 there is mounted a controlcircuit 32 for controlling the operation of the liquid crystal device 1based on commands from a main control unit of the electronic apparatusin which the liquid crystal device 1 is used, for example a portabletelephone, a mobile computer, and so on. Terminals 33 are formed atappropriate locations on this control board 31.

[0144] The terminal portions of a connection element, for example, anFPC (Flexible Printed Circuit) 36, are electrically connected toterminal patterns 18 a which are formed at the edge of the substrateprojecting part 4 a of the first substrate 3 a which forms the liquidcrystal panel 5 by an ACF 34. Then the other terminal portions of theFPC 36 are electrically connected to the terminals 33 of the controlboard 31 by soldering or by some other electrical connection technique.By doing this, the control board 31 and the first substrate 3 a areelectrically connected by the FPC 36. Although it is not shown in FIG.2, in the same way, the terminal patterns 18 b which are formed at theedge of the substrate projecting part 4 b of the second substrate 3 bshown in FIG. 1 are also electrically connected to the control board 31by the FPC or the like.

[0145] Regarding the liquid crystal device 1 which is formed asdescribed above, in FIG. 2, in bright surroundings, ambient lightincident on the liquid crystal device 1 passes through the liquidcrystal panel 5, is reflected by the transflector 26, passes through thepolarizing plate 12 a, and is supplied to the liquid crystal panel 5.The orientation of the liquid crystal L is controlled at each pixelaccording to the voltage applied across the first electrodes 9 a whichact as data lines and the second electrodes 9 b which act as scanninglines. Therefore, the light which is supplied to the liquid crystal L ismodulated at each pixel, is selectively transmitted through thepolarizing plate 12 b, and displays characters or other images towardsthe outside. A reflective-type display is thus performed.

[0146] When the liquid crystal device 1 surroundings are dark, the LED28 emits light, the emitted light enters the light-guiding member 23through the light incident surface 23 a of the light-guiding member 23,is reflected by the reflective sheet 27, and, after being diffused bythe diffusing sheet 24, is supplied to the liquid crystal panel 5.Therefore, by performing the same process on the supplied light as inthe reflective-type display described above, characters and other imagesare displayed towards the outside of the liquid crystal panel 5. Atransmissive-type display is thus performed.

[0147] (Second Embodiment)

[0148]FIG. 5 shows a liquid crystal panel which is an element of anotherembodiment of the liquid crystal device according to the presentinvention. Although not shown in the figure, a polarizing plate, abacklight acting as a light source, a flexible board acting as a wiringmember, a support member, and so on are mounted, as necessary, to theliquid crystal panel 45 shown here, thus forming the liquid crystaldevice. Furthermore, the liquid crystal panel 45 is a simple-matrixtype, COG-type liquid crystal panel.

[0149] The liquid crystal panel 45 in FIG. 5 is formed by bondingtogether a first substrate 3 a and a second substrate 3 b with a sealingmaterial 2 therebetween. A substrate projecting part 4 a, which projectsfurther towards the outside than the second substrate 3 b, is formed onthe first substrate 3 a, and a substrate projecting part 4 b, whichprojects further towards the outside than the first substrate 3 a, isformed on the second substrate 3 b. Furthermore, the sealing material 2is disposed in the form of a frame so as to surround the peripheryportion of the rectangular planar portion shown in the drawing, which isthe portion where the first substrate 3 a and the second substrate 3 boverlap. There are individual parts, that is, a part 2 a, a part 2 b, apart 2 c, and a part 2 d at the four parts which form the sides of therectangle.

[0150] By arranging a plurality of strip-shaped first electrodes 9 a,which are formed of ITO or the like, parallel to each other on theinside surface of the first substrate 3 a (that is to say, the frontsurface in FIG. 5), a stripe-shaped pattern is formed. First wiringlines 17 a are integrally formed at one end of these first electrodes 9a, and these first wiring lines 17 a pass through the part 2 b of thesealing material 2 and are extended onto the surface of the substrateprojecting part 4 a. At the other end of the first electrodes 9 a,extended dummy patterns 19 a, which are connected to the firstelectrodes 9 a, are formed. These extended dummy patterns 19 a areformed so as to pass through the part 2 d of the sealing material 2.

[0151] By arranging a plurality of strip-shaped second electrodes 9 b,which are formed of ITO or the like, parallel to each other on theinside surface of the second substrate 3 b (that is to say, the rearsurface in FIG. 5), a stripe-shaped pattern is formed. Second wiringlines 17 b are integrally formed at one end of these second electrodes 9b, and these second wiring lines 17 b pass through the part 2 a of thesealing material 2 and are extended onto the surface of the substrateprojecting part 4 b. At the other end of the second electrodes 9 b,extended dummy patterns 19 b, which are connected to the secondelectrodes 9 b, are formed. These extended dummy patterns 19 b areformed so as to pass through the part 2 c of the sealing material 2.

[0152] Color filters 13 are formed on the inside surface of the firstsubstrate 3 a, as shown in FIG. 6. These color filters 13 are formed bysuitably arranging, for example, red (R), green (G), and blue (B) colorelements, and depositing a protective film thereon. Then the firstelectrodes 9 a are formed on top of the color filters 13. Furthermore,an orientation film 11 a made of a polyimide resin or the like is formedon top of the first electrodes 9 a. On the other hand, the secondelectrodes 9 b are directly formed on the inside surface of the secondsubstrate 3 b, and an orientation film 11 b made of a polyimide resin orthe like is formed on top of the second electrodes 9 b.

[0153] One first electrode 9 a is formed for each color element of thecolor filters 13, and three first electrodes 9 a and one secondelectrode 9 b correspond to one pixel of the color display. One pixel isformed of three dots which are separately formed at the intersectingportions of the first electrodes 9 a and the second electrodes 9 b.

[0154] The sealing material 2 is made from, for example, a thermosettingresin, and spherical or cylindrical gap members, that is to say, spacers16, which are formed of resin are mixed in the sealing material 2.Liquid crystal L is encapsulated in the inside region surrounded by thesealing material 2, and spacers 14 having a slightly smaller diameterthan the spacers 16 are distributed inside the liquid crystalencapsulating region which is bounded by the sealing material 2. Thesespacers 14 and 16 control the spacing between the substrates so that,when the first substrate 3 a and the second substrate 3 b are bondedwith the uncured sealing material 2 therebetween and then pressedtogether, the spacing between the two substrates is constant, forexample, 5 to 10 μm. The liquid crystal panel 45 is formed by carryingout hardening treatment on the sealing material 2 under conditions inwhich the spacers 14 and 16 control the spacing between the substratesby applying pressure during press-bonding.

[0155] In FIG. 5, the IC chips 6 a and 6 b, which have built-in liquidcrystal driving circuits, are mounted on the substrate projecting parts4 a and 4 b, respectively. Also, input terminals 18 a and 18 b areformed at the edges of the substrate projecting parts 4 a and 4 b,respectively. The connection terminals of the IC chips 6 a and 6 b areelectrically connected to the wiring lines 17 a and 17 b as well as tothe input terminals 18 a and 18 b by the ACF 7 (refer to FIG. 6). TheACF 7 is, for example, a resin having many conductive particles includedtherein, and, by applying thermocompression thereto, has a function ofimparting conductivity only in the thickness direction.

[0156]FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an enlarged view of the regionindicated by the arrow VII in FIG. 5, and schematically shows anenlarged view of the planar shape of the second electrodes 9 b. As isshown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, on the second substrate 3 b the secondelectrodes 9 b, the second wiring lines 17 b, and the extended dummypatterns 19 b are formed.

[0157] On the first substrate 3 a which opposes the second substrate 3b, wiring line dummy patterns 37 a, which are made of ITO or the like,are formed as part of the first electrodes 9 a (refer to FIG. 5) at thesame time as the first electrodes 9 a so as to oppose the second wiringlines 17 b. Furthermore, opposing dummy patterns 38 a, which are made ofITO or the like, are formed as part of the first electrodes 9 a (referto FIG. 5) at the same time as the first electrodes 9 a to oppose theextended dummy patterns 19 b. Both the wiring line dummy patterns 37 aand the opposing dummy patterns 38 a are separate from the firstelectrodes 9 a (refer to FIG. 5), that is to say, they are unconnectedpatterns.

[0158] In FIG. 7, the second wiring lines 17 b pass in front of the part2 a of the sealing material 2 in the figure; the wiring line dummypatterns 37 a pass behind the part 2 a of the sealing material 2 in thefigure; the extended dummy patterns 19 b pass in front of the part 2 cof the sealing material 2 in the figure; and the opposing dummy patterns38 a pass behind the part 2 c of the sealing material 2 in the figure.

[0159] In the present specification, the dummy patterns which areconnected to the first electrodes 9 a and the second electrodes 9 b areintegrally formed with these electrodes and with the wiring linesconnected to these electrodes, and they are provided with a fixedpotential during driving. Also, the dummy patterns which are separatedfrom the first electrodes 9 a and the second electrode 9 b areelectrically isolated from these electrodes and from the wiring lineswhich are connected to these electrodes, and they are not provided witha potential during driving.

[0160] The extended dummy patterns 19 b are dummy patterns at the sideopposite to the wiring lines 17 b in the second electrodes 9 b, and theycan be part of the dummy patterns which are separated from the secondelectrodes 9 b. In the present embodiment, these extended dummy patterns19 b are formed as part of the dummy patterns which are connected to thesecond electrodes 9 b.

[0161] The wiring line dummy patterns 37 a are dummy patterns which aredisposed opposite to the wiring lines 17 b, and they may be part of thedummy patterns which are connected to the first electrodes 9 a (refer toFIG. 5), or alternatively, they may be part of the dummy patterns whichare separated from the first electrodes 9 a. In the present embodiment,these wiring line dummy patterns 37 a are formed as part of the dummypatterns which are separated from the first electrodes 9 a.

[0162] Generally, dummy patterns which are separated from the electrodesare used as the dummy patterns which are provided opposite the wiringlines which extend from the electrodes and opposite the dummy patternswhich are connected to the electrodes.

[0163] In FIG. 7, from the ends of the second electrodes 9 b, the wiringlines 17 b pass through the part 2 a of the sealing material 2 with awidth which is smaller than the width of the second electrodes 9 b, thatis to say, with a narrower width. Accordingly, the wiring lines 17 bwhich pass through the part 2 a of the sealing material 2, are ledtowards the IC chip 6 b mounting region, which is defined on thesubstrate projecting part 4 b, as shown in FIG. 5. The connectionterminals of the IC chip 6 b, which are not shown in the drawing, areformed with a pitch, in other words, a spacing between the terminals,which is much smaller than the spacing with which the second electrodes9 b are formed; that is to say, they are narrowly formed. Therefore, thewiring lines 17 b pass through the part 2 a of the sealing material 2while being directed towards the IC chip mounting region and converging.

[0164] The wiring line dummy patterns 37 a opposing the second wiringlines 17 b extend on the first substrate 3 a, which opposes the secondwiring lines 17 b, along the direction of the second wiring lines 17 b,and they terminate immediately after passing through the part 2 a of thesealing material 2.

[0165] On the first substrate 3 a which opposes the second electrodes 9b, the opposing dummy patterns 38 a which oppose the extended dummypatterns 19 a split into two, that is to say, they are divided in thedirection in which the second electrodes 9 b are arrayed, in otherwords, the direction in which the part 2 c of the sealing material 2extends in FIG. 7, and then they pass through the part 2 c with a widthand a spacing P1 which are different from the width and the spacing P0of the second electrodes 9 b.

[0166] In other words, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, the width ofportions 19 bb of the extended dummy patterns 19 b which pass throughthe sealing material is smaller than the width of the second electrodes9 b, and furthermore, the spacing P1 of the sealing material passingportions 19 bb of the extended dummy patterns 19 b is smaller than thespacing P0 of the second electrodes 9 b.

[0167] Moreover, the width of portions 38 aa of the opposing dummypatterns 38 a which pass through the sealing material is smaller thanthe width of the second electrodes 9 b, and furthermore, the spacing P2of the sealing material passing portions 38aa of the opposing dummypatterns 38 a is smaller than the spacing P0 of the second electrodes 19b.

[0168] As a result of the above, the area occupation ratios of theextended dummy patterns 19 b and the opposing dummy patterns 38 a withrespect to the part 2 c of the sealing material 2 are each significantlysmaller than the area occupation ratio of the second electrodes 19 bwith respect to the part 2 c in which the second electrodes 9 a passthrough the part 2 c of the sealing material 2.

[0169] Furthermore, regarding the extended dummy patterns 19 b and theopposing dummy patterns 38 a shown in FIG. 7, the spacings P3 and P4 ofthe sealing material passing parts which extend from a common secondelectrode 9 b and are divided, and the spacings P5 and P6 betweenneighboring extended dummy patterns 19 b which extend from adjacentsecond electrodes 9 b and between sealing material passing parts of theopposing dummy patterns 38 a are substantially the same. Therefore thesealing material passing parts 19 bb and 38 aa of the plurality ofextended dummy patterns 19 b, which extends from the plurality of secondelectrodes 9 b, and the opposing dummy patterns 38 a, respectively, arearrayed with a substantially constant period. In the present embodiment,the sum of the width of the sealing material passing parts l9bb of theextended dummy patterns 19 b and the width of the sealing materialpassing parts 38 aa of the opposing dummy patterns 38 a is set so as tobe substantially the same as the sum of the width of sealing materialpassing parts 17 bb of the second electrodes 9 b and the width ofsealing material passing parts 37 aa of the wiring line dummy patterns37 a.

[0170] Moreover, the sum of the spacing P1 of the sealing materialpassing parts 19 bb of the extended dummy patterns 19 b and the spacingP2 of the sealing material passing parts 38 aa of the opposing dummypatterns 38 a is set so as to be substantially the same as the sum ofthe spacing P7 of the sealing material passing parts 17 bb of the secondwiring lines 17 b and the spacing P8 of the sealing material passingparts 37aa of the wiring line dummy patterns 37 a.

[0171]FIG. 8 shows the region indicated by arrow VIII in FIG. 5 and,mainly, it schematically shows part of the first electrodes 9 a and thesecond electrodes 9 b. In this figure, the planar shape of the firstelectrodes 9 a is shown by the broken lines and the planar shape of thesecond electrodes 9 b is shown by the solid lines. The liquid crystal isdriven at each pixel, and inside a driving region Z where a suitabledisplay can be formed, pixels which are made up of portions where thefirst electrodes 9 a and the second electrodes 9 b mutually intersectare arranged in the form of a matrix.

[0172] In cases where this liquid crystal panel 45 (refer to FIG. 5) isinstalled as a display in various kinds of electronic apparatuses, aperipheral region Y, which is externally exposed as part of the displayscreen at the periphery of the driving region Z, is provided outside thedriving region Z. No display is formed in this peripheral region Y Thesealing material 2 is disposed further outside this peripheral region Y.

[0173] In cases where this liquid crystal panel 45 (refer to FIG. 5) isinstalled as a display in various kinds of electronic apparatuses, theperipheral region Y is positioned further inside a marginal portion,which is a surface of the display screen that is externally exposed,that is, a portion which is referred to as a so-called dead region, andalso outside the driving region Z. Since this peripheral region Y isnoticeable by users of the display or electronic apparatus, it ispreferable that, as much as possible, its appearance be made the same asthat of the driving region Z when it is not being driven. The variousdummy patterns mentioned above are formed in order to achieve this.

[0174] In order to reduce the difference in appearance of the areainside the peripheral region Y at the part 2 a side of the sealingmaterial 2 and the area at the part 2 c side of the sealing material 2by extending the divided form of the extended dummy patterns 19 b andthe opposing dummy patterns 38 a deep inside the peripheral region Y,the present embodiment is configured such that appearance of the area atthe part 2 c side of the peripheral region Y is almost the same as theappearance of the area at the part 2 a side of the peripheral region Y,which is realized by the second wiring lines 17 b and the wiring linedummy patterns 37 a.

[0175] In other words, since the widths and the spacings of the extendeddummy patterns 19 b and the opposing dummy patterns 38 a aresubstantially the same as the width and the spacing of the second wiringlines 17 b and the wiring line dummy patterns 37 a, their appearancesare also similar to such an extent that they cannot be distinguished.

[0176] Furthermore, the separated dummy patterns 17 b′ which are shownin FIG. 8 are formed as part of the second electrodes 9 b and, as wellas improving the uniformity of the appearance of the peripheral regionY, in order to make the patterns pass through the part 2 a of thesealing material 2 under the same conditions, they are formed to bealigned with the second wiring lines 17 b such that their width andspacing are substantially the same as those of the wiring lines 17 b.

[0177]FIG. 9(a) shows the cross-sectional structure of a region in aconventional liquid crystal panel where the extended dummy patterns 11 9b and the opposing dummy patterns 138 a which are disposed opposite tothe extended dummy patterns 119 b are formed. FIG. 9(b) shows thecross-sectional structure of the region in the present embodiment wherethe extended dummy patterns 19 b and the opposing dummy patterns 38 awhich are disposed opposite thereto are formed.

[0178] Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 9(a), the extended dummypatterns 119 b and the opposing dummy patterns 138 a are extended with awidth which is the same as the width of the second electrodes 112 btoward the sealing material 2, and since they pass through the part 2 cof the sealing material 2, many spacers 16 become caught between theextended dummy patterns 119 b and the opposing dummy patterns 138 a.

[0179] On the other hand, in the case of the present embodiment, asshown in FIG. 9(b), since the sealing material passing parts 19bb andthe sealing material passing parts 38aa of the extended dummy patterns19 b and the opposing dummy patterns 38 a, respectively, are formed witha smaller width and a smaller spacing, the number of spacers 16 caughtbetween the sealing material passing parts 19bb of the extended dummypatterns 19 b and the sealing material passing parts 38aa of theopposing dummy patterns 38 a is reduced, and they receive a force duringsubstrate bonding in accordance with the smaller number of spacers thanin the case of the conventional structure. Therefore, since the forcereceived by a single spacer 16 is larger and thus the amount of crushingof the spacer 16 is larger, the substrate spacing in the vicinity of thepart 2 c of the sealing material is smaller than in the case of theconventional structure.

[0180] As a result of the above, in the present embodiment, compared tothe conventional structure, the difference between the substrate spacingin the vicinity of the part 2 c of the sealing material 2 and thesubstrate spacing in the vicinity of the part 2 a of the sealingmaterial 2 through which the second wiring lines 17 b, which are formedwith a smaller width and a smaller spacing than the second electrodes 9b, and the wiring line dummy patterns 37 a pass is smaller. Therefore,the nonuniformity in substrate spacing in the driving region Z is alsoreduced.

[0181] In the present embodiment, a more preferable structure is one inwhich the sum of the area occupation ratios, with respect to the part 2a, of the wiring lines 17 b and the wiring line dummy patterns 37 a,which are positioned both in front of and behind the part 2 a at oneside of the sealing material 2, is substantially the same as the sum ofthe area occupation ratios, with respect to the part 2 c, of theextended dummy patterns 19 b and the opposing dummy patterns 38 a, whichare positioned both in front of and behind the part 2 c at the otherside of the sealing material 2, and furthermore, in which the spacingsof these individual patterns are substantially the same as each other.

[0182] Accordingly, since the sums of the area occupation rations of theindividual patterns passing in front of and behind both the part 2 a andthe part 2 c of the sealing material 2 are identical to each other, thenonuniformity in the substrate spacing due to the difference in areaoccupation ratios can be reduced. Therefore, the display quality can beimproved even more.

[0183]FIG. 10 is an enlarged plan view showing the region indicated bythe arrow X in FIG. 5, and shows the planar form of the extended dummypatterns 19 a which are integrally formed with the first electrodes 9 a.Extended dummy patterns 19 ai, which are formed with a width smallerthan the first electrodes 9 a, are integrally formed on first electrodes9 a which form one group. On the other hand, another group of the firstelectrodes 9 a, which are adjacent to the first electrodes 9 a formingthat group, are split into two and are integrally provided with twoextended dummy patterns 19 ay.

[0184] The extended dummy patterns l9 ai and the extended dummy patternsl9 ay have the same width as each other, and furthermore, they areformed so that the spacings between them are exactly the same. Also, theextended dummy patterns l9 ai and the extended dummy patterns l9 ay bothpass through the part 2 d of the sealing material 2.

[0185] Opposing dummy patterns 38 b are positioned opposite the extendeddummy patterns l9 ai and extended dummy patterns l9 ay, the opposingdummy patterns 38 b being formed at the same time as the secondelectrodes 9 b and as part of the second electrodes 9 b (see FIG. 5),which are formed on the front surface of the second substrate 3 b (seeFIG. 5) which faces the extended dummy patterns l9ai and l9ay. Theseopposing dummy patterns 38 b are formed with the same width as eachother and, furthermore, they are formed so that the spacings betweenthem are exactly the same as each other.

[0186]FIG. 11 is an enlarged plan view showing the region indicated bythe arrow XI in FIG. 5, and shows the vicinity of the region where thefirst wiring lines 17 a pass through the sealing material. The firstwiring lines 17 a which lead from the first electrodes 9 a have a widthwhich is smaller than the width of the first electrodes 9 a and,furthermore, they are formed such that they pass through the part 2 b ofthe sealing material 2 while their mutual spacing becomes smaller.Wiring line dummy patterns 37 b are formed as part of the secondelectrodes 9 b (see FIG. 5) on the surface of the second substrate 3 awhich faces the first wiring lines 17 a, these wiring line dummypatterns 37 b are positioned opposite the first wiring lines 17 a, andfurthermore, they pass the part 2 b of the sealing material 2 on theside opposite to the first wiring lines 17 a.

[0187] In FIG. 10, regarding the first electrodes 9 a, the width and thespacing at the region where the extended dummy patterns 19 a passthrough the sealing material are formed so as to be smaller than thewidth and the spacing of the first electrodes 9 a, in the same way as inthe case of the second electrodes 9 b shown in FIG. 7. The width and thespacing at the region where the opposing dummy patterns 38 b, which facethe extended dummy patterns 19 a, pass through the sealing material arealso formed so as to be smaller than the width and the spacing of thefirst electrodes 9 a.

[0188] The width and the spacing at the region where the extended dummypatterns 19 a and the opposing dummy patterns 38 b pass through thesealing material are formed so as to be substantially the same as thewidth and the spacing at the region where the first wiring lines 17 aand the wiring line dummy patterns 37 b shown in FIG. 11 pass throughthe sealing material. Therefore, the difference in substrate spacingbetween the part 2 b and the part 2 d of the sealing material 2 can bereduced.

[0189] In the embodiment described above, the opposing dummy patterns 38a which are provided on the first substrate 3 a in FIG. 7 are formed bythe divided branches of each pattern which is divided into two; however,instead of this, each individual sealing material passing region may beformed so as to be divided. Also, the opposing dummy patterns 38 b whichare provided on the second substrate 3 b in FIG. 10 are formed so as tobe divided at each individual sealing material passing region; however,instead of this, it is also possible to connect adjacent pairs of theopposing dummy patterns 38 b to each other.

[0190] In the above embodiment, cases have been described wherein thepairs of patterns which are provided on both the first substrate 3 a andthe second substrate 3 b, for example, the extended dummy patterns 19 aand the opposing dummy patterns 38 b in FIG. 10, the extended dummypatterns 19 b and the opposing dummy patterns 38 a in FIG. 7, the secondwiring lines 17 b and the wiring line dummy patterns 37 a in FIG. 7, orthe first wiring lines 17 a and the wiring line dummy patterns 37 b inFIG. 11, are provided so as to pass through the sealing material 2 withthe same width and spacing as each other.

[0191] However, for the pairs of patterns which pass in front of andbehind the sealing material 2, it is not necessary in general to formthem with substantially the same width and spacing; for example, it ispossible for the first electrodes 9 a and the second electrodes 9 b tohave different widths and spacings or different area occupation ratiosin accordance with the shape into which only one of the patterns, thatis, either the front or the rear, is divided.

[0192] Furthermore, the embodiment described above was configured suchthat the patterns pass both in front of and behind the sealing material;however, instead of this, it is also possible to provide a structuresuch that the patterns pass the sealing material in only one place, thatis either in front or behind.

[0193] (Third Embodiment)

[0194]FIG. 12 shows one embodiment of a case in which a liquid crystaldevice according to the present invention is used as a display apparatusof various types of electronic apparatus. The electronic apparatus shownhere has a display information output source 70, a display informationprocessing circuit 71, a power supply circuit 72, a timing generator 73,and a liquid crystal device 74. Furthermore, the liquid crystal device74 has a liquid crystal panel 75 and a driving circuit 76. The liquidcrystal device 74 may be configured by using a liquid crystal device inwhich, for example, the liquid crystal panel 5 shown in FIG. 2 or theliquid crystal panel 45 shown in FIG. 5 is provided.

[0195] The display information output source 70 is provided with amemory such as a ROM (Read Only Memory) or a RAM (Random Access Memory),a F006009 storage unit such as a magnetic recording disk or an opticalrecording disk, and a synchronization circuit which synchronizes digitalvideo signals, and, based on various types of clock signals which aregenerated by the timing generator 73, it supplies display information,such as video signals in a predetermined format, to the imageinformation processing circuit 71.

[0196] The image information processing circuit 71 is provided withvarious kinds of well-known circuits, such as a serial-parallelconversion circuit, an amplifying/reversing circuit, a rotation circuit,a gamma correction circuit, and a clamping circuit; executes processingon the display information which is input, and supplies that videosignal to the driving circuit 76 along with a clock signal CLK. Thedriving circuit 76 is configured to include a scanning line drivingcircuit, a data line driving circuit, an examination circuit, and so on.Also, the power supply circuit 72 supplies predetermined voltages to theindividual structural elements.

[0197] (Fourth Embodiment)

[0198]FIG. 13 shows a mobile telephone which is one embodiment of theelectronic apparatus according to the present invention. A mobiletelephone 80 shown here has a plurality of operating buttons 81 and aliquid crystal device 82. The liquid crystal device 82 may be configuredby using, for example, the liquid crystal device 1 which is shown inFIG. 2.

[0199] (Fifth Embodiment)

[0200]FIG. 14 shows another example of a mobile telephone which is oneembodiment of the electronic apparatus according to the presentinvention. In this mobile telephone 90, a circuit board 92 is disposedinside a casing 91, and a liquid crystal panel 93 is installed facingthis circuit board 92. Operating buttons 94 are arranged on the frontsurface of the casing 91, and an expandable and retractable antenna 96is mounted at one end.

[0201] A speaker is disposed inside an earpiece unit 97 and microphoneis built into a mouthpiece unit 98. Regarding the liquid crystal panel93 which is disposed inside the casing 91, the display screen thereof,in other words, the surface combining the driving region Z and theperipheral region Y in FIG. 5, can be viewed through a display window 99which is provided in the casing 91.

[0202] (Other Embodiments)

[0203] While the present invention has been described in terms of thepreferred embodiments described above, the present invention is notlimited to those embodiments, and various modifications are possiblewithin the scope of the invention described in the claims.

[0204] For example, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, although thepresent invention is applied to a COG-type simple matrix liquid crystaldevice, it is of course also possible to apply the present invention toliquid crystal devices which do not have a configuration in which ICchips are directly mounted onto the substrate projecting parts, forexample, liquid crystal devices which use TAB (Tape Automated Bonding)substrates or FPCs (Flexible Printed Circuits). Moreover, the presentinvention may also be applied to active matrix liquid crystal devices.(Advantages)

[0205] As described above, in both the liquid crystal devices and theelectronic apparatuses according to the present invention, since thewidth of the dummy patterns is formed to be smaller than the width ofthe electrodes in the driving region which is surrounded by the sealingmaterial, it is possible to make the dimensional variations in the widthof the dummy patterns and the width of the opposing wiring lines small,and accordingly, it is possible to reduce the nonuniformity in the cellthickness of the liquid crystal, that is to say, the spacing between thesubstrates, between the wiring line side and the dummy pattern side.Therefore, the display quality of the liquid crystal device can beimproved.

1. A liquid crystal device comprising a pair of substrates which arebonded by a sealing material and a driving region which is formed insidethe sealing material, and comprising: a liquid crystal layer which issurrounded by the sealing material, the sealing material being disposedbetween the pair of substrates; spacers which are dispersed in thesealing material; and electrodes, provided on the liquid crystal layerside of one of the substrates, including portions forming the drivingregion, wiring lines which overlap the sealing material at one side ofthe driving region while supplying a potential to the portions formingthe driving region, and dummy patterns which overlap the sealingmaterial at the other side of the driving region while being connectedto the portions forming the driving region, wherein the width of thedummy patterns at a region overlapping the sealing material is smallerthan the width of the portions forming the driving region.
 2. A liquidcrystal device according to claim 1, wherein the width of the wiringlines at a region overlapping the sealing material is smaller than thewidth of the portions forming the driving region.
 3. A liquid crystaldevice according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein second dummy patternsare provided on the liquid crystal layer side of the other one of thesubstrates so as to overlap the dummy patterns.
 4. A liquid crystaldevice according to one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the width and spacingof the dummy patterns are substantially the same as the width andspacing of the wiring lines.
 5. A liquid crystal device according toclaim 4, wherein the width and the spacing of the dummy patterns aremade to be substantially the same as the width and spacing of the wiringlines by adjusting the width of the dummy patterns by forming a step inthe sides of the dummy patterns.
 6. A liquid crystal device comprising apair of substrates which are bonded by a sealing material and a drivingregion which is formed inside the sealing material, and comprising: aliquid crystal layer which is disposed between the pair of substratesand is surrounded by the sealing material; spacers which are dispersedin the sealing material; and electrodes, provided on the liquid crystallayer side of one of the substrates, including portions forming thedriving region, wiring lines which overlap the sealing material at oneside of the driving region while supplying a potential to the portionsforming the driving region, and dummy patterns which are disposed at theother side of the driving region while being connected to the portionsforming the driving region, wherein the dummy patterns have a pluralityof split parts which are formed by splitting the end of the electrodes;the plurality of split parts overlap the sealing material; and the widthof each forked split part is smaller than the width of the drivingregion.
 7. A liquid crystal device according to claim 6 wherein thewidth of the wiring lines at the region overlapping the sealing materialis smaller than the width of the portions forming the driving region. 8.A liquid crystal device according to claim 6 or claim 7, wherein thewidth and spacing of the dummy patterns are made to be substantially thesame as the width and spacing of the wiring lines by matching the endsof the split parts and the unsplit electrodes.
 9. A liquid crystaldevice comprising a pair of substrates which are bonded by a sealingmaterial and a driving region which is formed inside the sealingmaterial, and comprising: a liquid crystal layer which is disposedbetween the pair of substrates and is surrounded by the sealingmaterial; spacers which are dispersed in the sealing material; aplurality of electrodes, provided on the liquid crystal layer side ofone of the substrates, including portions forming the driving region,wiring lines which overlap the sealing material at one side of thedriving region while supplying a potential to the portions forming thedriving region, and dummy patterns which are disposed at the other sideof the driving region while being connected to the driving region; andan IC chip which is mounted on one of the substrates and which isconnected to the wiring lines, wherein each of the wiring lines isdisposed so as to converge towards the IC chip from the driving region;each of the dummy patterns comprises a plurality of split parts formedby splitting the ends of the electrodes; the plurality of split partsoverlap the sealing material; and the widths and spacings of the splitparts and the wiring lines are substantially the same.
 10. A liquidcrystal device comprising a pair of substrates which are bonded by asealing material and a driving region which is formed inside the sealingmaterial, and comprising: a liquid crystal layer which is disposedbetween the pair of substrates and is surrounded by the sealingmaterial; spacers which are dispersed in the sealing material; aplurality of electrodes, provided on the liquid crystal layer side ofone of the substrates, including portions forming the driving region,wiring lines which overlap the sealing material at one side of thedriving region while supplying a potential to the portions forming thedriving region, and dummy patterns which are disposed at the other sideof the driving region while being connected to the portions forming thedriving region; and an IC chip which is mounted on one of the substratesand which is connected to the wiring lines, wherein the individualwiring lines are disposed so as to converge towards the IC chip from thedriving region; the plurality of dummy patterns include at least one ofthe first parts and at least one of the second parts due to the factthat the individual dummy patterns have_one of a plurality of firstparts which are formed by splitting the ends of the electrodes and asecond part which is formed by the end of the electrodes which are notsplit; the first parts and the second parts overlap the sealingmaterial; and the combined width and spacing of the first parts and thesecond parts are substantially the same as the width and the spacing ofthe wiring lines.
 11. A liquid crystal device according to claim 10,wherein the widths of each of the individual first parts, the individualsecond parts, and the individual wiring lines are smaller than thewidths of the individual portions forming the driving region.
 12. Aliquid crystal device comprising a pair of substrates which are bondedby a sealing material and a plurality of electrodes formed on a surfaceof at least one of the substrates, at least one of the substratescomprising a substrate projecting part which projects outside the othersubstrate; wherein the plurality of electrodes includes wiring lineswhich pass through the sealing material and extend to the substrateprojecting part, and dummy patterns which pass through the sealingmaterial at the side opposite the substrate projecting part; and thedummy patterns are formed with a width which is smaller than the widthof the electrodes which are in a portion surrounded by the sealingmaterial.
 13. A liquid crystal device according to claim 12, wherein thearea occupation ratio of portions of the dummy patterns which passthrough the sealing material is substantially the same as the areaoccupation ratio of portions of the wiring lines which pass through thesealing material.
 14. A liquid crystal device according to claim 13,wherein the area occupation ratio of the portions of the dummy patternswhich pass through the sealing material and the area occupation ratio ofthe portions of the wiring lines which pass through the sealing materialare each approximately 40% or more.
 15. A liquid crystal deviceaccording to one of claims 12 to 14, wherein spacers are included in thesealing material.
 16. A liquid crystal device according to one of claims12 to 15, wherein an IC chip is mounted on the surface of the substrateprojecting part and the wiring lines are connected to terminals of theIC chip.
 17. A liquid crystal device according to one of claims 12 to16, wherein color filters are formed on one of the surfaces of the pairof substrates, and the electrodes are formed on one of the pair ofsubstrates in correspondence with the individual color elements of thecolor filters.
 18. A liquid crystal device according to one of claims 12to 17, wherein stripe-shaped electrodes which orthogonally intersecteach other are formed on the pair of substrates, and the liquid crystaldevice is a simple matrix type in which each of the orthogonallyintersecting portions forms a pixel.
 19. An electronic apparatuscomprising a liquid crystal device and a control circuit for controllingthe operation of the liquid crystal device; wherein the liquid crystaldevice comprises a pair of substrates bonded by a sealing material and aplurality of electrodes formed on the surface of at least one of thesubstrates, at least one of the substrates comprising a substrateprojecting part which projects outside the other substrate; theplurality of electrodes comprises wiring lines which pass through thesealing material and extend to the substrate projecting part and dummypatterns which pass through the sealing material at the side opposite tothe substrate projecting part; and the dummy patterns are formed with awidth which is smaller than the width of the electrodes in a portionsurrounded by the sealing material.
 20. A liquid crystal devicecomprising a pair of substrates bonded by a sealing material and aplurality of electrodes formed on the surface of at least one of thesubstrates, a driving region being provided inside the sealing material;wherein the electrodes comprise wiring lines which pass through a partof the sealing material which is formed at one side of the drivingregion and are led to the outside, and dummy patterns which are on thesurface of at least one of the pair of substrates and which pass througha part of the sealing material which is formed at the other side of thedriving region; and the dummy patterns are formed so as to pass throughthe sealing material with a width and a spacing which are different fromthe width and the spacing of the electrodes inside the driving region.21. A liquid crystal device according to claim 20, wherein the dummypatterns are connected to the electrodes.
 22. A liquid crystal deviceaccording to claim 20, wherein the dummy patterns are at least one partof dummy patterns formed on the surface of the other substratecorresponding to the electrodes.
 23. A liquid crystal device accordingto one of claims 20 to 22, wherein the dummy patterns are formed so asto pass through the sealing material with a width and a spacing whichlean more towards the width and the spacing of the wiring lines than thewidth and the spacing of the electrodes inside the driving region.
 24. Aliquid crystal device according to claim 23, wherein the dummy patternsare formed so as to pass through the sealing material with a width and aspacing which are closer to the width and the spacing of the wiringlines than the width and the spacing of the electrodes inside thedriving region.
 25. A liquid crystal device according to one of claims20 to 24, wherein the area occupation ratio of the dummy patterns withrespect to the sealing material is formed so as to lean more towards thevalue of the area occupation ratio of the wiring lines with respect tothe sealing material than the area occupation ratio in the case wherethe electrodes inside the driving region pass through the sealingmaterial unchanged.
 26. A liquid crystal device according to claim 25wherein the area occupation ratio of the dummy patterns with respect tothe sealing material is formed so as to be closer in value to the areaoccupation ratio of the wiring lines with respect to the sealingmaterial than the area occupation ratio in the case where the electrodesinside the driving region pass through the sealing material unchanged.27. A liquid crystal device comprising a pair of substrates bonded by asealing material, a plurality of first electrodes formed on the surfaceof one of the substrates, and a plurality of second electrodes formed onthe surface of the other substrate, a driving region being providedinside the sealing material; wherein the first electrodes are providedwith wiring lines which pass through a part of the sealing materialformed at one side of the driving region and which are led towards theoutside; the second electrodes are provided with dummy patterns whichpass through a part of the sealing material formed at the other side ofthe driving region; and the dummy patterns are formed with a width whichis different from the width of the first electrodes.
 28. A liquidcrystal device according to claim 27, wherein the dummy patterns areformed so as to pass through the sealing material with a width and aspacing which leans more towards the width and the spacing of the wiringlines than the width and the spacing of the first electrodes inside thedriving region.
 29. A liquid crystal device according to claim 28,wherein the dummy patterns are formed so as to pass through the sealingmaterial with a width and a spacing which is closer to the width and thespacing of the wiring lines than the width and the spacing of the firstelectrodes inside the driving region.
 30. A liquid crystal deviceaccording to one of claims 27 to 29, wherein the area occupation ratioof the dummy patterns with respect to the sealing material is formed soas to lean more towards the value of the area occupation ratio of thewiring lines with respect to the sealing material than the areaoccupation ratio when it is assumed that the electrodes inside thedriving region are extended and pass through the sealing material withthe original width and spacing thereof unchanged.
 31. A liquid crystaldevice according to claim 30, wherein the area occupation ratio of thedummy patterns with respect to the sealing material is formed so as tobe closer in value to the area occupation ratio of the wiring lines withrespect to the sealing material than the area occupation ratio when itis assumed that the electrodes inside the driving region are extendedand pass through the sealing material with the original width andspacing thereof unchanged.
 32. A liquid crystal device comprising a pairof substrates bonded by a sealing material, a plurality of firstelectrodes formed on the surface of one of the substrates, and aplurality of second electrodes formed on the surface of the othersubstrate, a driving region being provided inside the sealing material;wherein the first electrodes are provided with wiring lines which passthrough a part of the sealing material formed at one side of the drivingregion and which are led towards the outside, and first dummy patternswhich pass through a part of the sealing material formed at the otherside of the driving region; the second electrodes are provided withthird dummy patterns which oppose the wiring lines, and second dummypatterns which oppose the first dummy patterns; and the sum of the areaoccupation ratio of the first dummy patterns with respect to the sealingmaterial and the area occupation ratio of the second dummy patterns withrespect to the sealing material has a value which leans more towards thesum of the area occupation ratio of the wiring lines with respect to thesealing material and the area occupation ratio of the third dummypatterns with respect to the sealing material than two times the areaoccupation ratio when it is assumed that the first electrodes areextended and pass through the sealing material with the original widthand spacing thereof unchanged.
 33. A liquid crystal device according toclaim 32, wherein the sum of the area occupation ratio of the firstdummy patterns with respect to the sealing material and the areaoccupation ratio of the second dummy patterns with respect to thesealing material is closer in value to the sum of the area occupationratio of the wiring lines with respect to the sealing material and thearea occupation ratio of the third dummy patterns with respect to thesealing material than two times the area occupation ratio when it isassumed that the first electrodes are extended and pass through thesealing material with the original width and spacing thereof unchanged.34. A liquid crystal device comprising a pair of substrates bonded by asealing material, a plurality of first electrodes formed on the surfaceof one of the substrates, and a plurality of second electrodes formed onthe surface of the other substrate, a driving region being providedinside the sealing material; wherein the first electrodes are providedwith wiring lines which pass through a part of the sealing materialformed at one side of the driving region and which are led towards theoutside, and first dummy patterns which pass through a part of thesealing material formed at the other side of the driving region; thesecond electrodes are provided with third dummy patterns which opposethe wiring lines, and second dummy patterns which oppose the first dummypatterns; the sum of the width of the parts of the first dummy patternswhich pass through the sealing material and the width of the parts ofthe second dummy patterns which pass through the sealing material has avalue which leans more towards the sum of the width of the parts of thewiring lines which pass through the sealing material and the width ofthe parts of the third dummy patterns which pass through the sealingmaterial than two times the width of the first electrodes; and the sumof the spacing between the parts of the first dummy patterns which passthrough the sealing material and the spacing between the parts of thesecond dummy patterns which pass through the sealing material has avalue which leans more towards the sum of the spacing between the partsof the wiring lines which pass through the sealing material and thespacing between the parts of the third dummy pattern which pass throughthe sealing material than two times the spacing between the firstelectrodes.
 35. A liquid crystal device according to claim 34, whereinthe sum of the width of the parts of the first dummy patterns which passthrough the sealing material and the width of the parts of the seconddummy patterns which pass through the sealing material is closer invalue to the sum of the width of the parts of the wiring lines whichpass through the sealing material and the width of the parts of thethird dummy patterns which pass through the sealing material than twotimes the width of the first electrodes; and the sum of the spacingbetween the parts of the first dummy patterns which pass through thesealing material and the spacing between the parts of the second dummypatterns which pass through the sealing material is closer in value tothe sum of the spacing between the parts of the wiring lines which passthrough the sealing material and the spacing between the parts of thethird dummy pattern which pass through the sealing material than twotimes the spacing between the first electrodes.
 36. A liquid crystaldevice according to one of claims 20 to 35, wherein spacers forregulating the spacing between the substrates are mixed in the sealingmaterial.
 37. A liquid crystal device according to one of claims 20 to36, wherein a simple-matrix-type liquid crystal panel is constructed byforming electrodes, which orthogonally intersect each other, in the formof stripes on each of the surfaces of the pair of substrates.
 38. Aliquid crystal device according to one of claims 20 to 37, furthercomprising color filters including a plurality of color elements,wherein the plurality of electrodes which are formed on the surface ofone of the pair of the substrates are formed at each color element. 39.A liquid crystal device according to one of claims 20 to 38, wherein anIC chip is mounted on at least one of the pair of substrates and thewiring lines are connected to terminals of the IC chip.
 40. Anelectronic apparatus comprising a liquid crystal device and controlmeans for controlling the operation of the liquid crystal device,wherein the liquid crystal device is formed of the liquid crystal deviceaccording to one of claims 20 to 39.